it seems fairly accurate...but here is a start for you.
Bork;
Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell was a moderate, and even before his expected retirement on June 27, 1987, Senate Democrats had asked liberal leaders to form "a solid phalanx" to oppose whoever President Ronald Reagan nominated to replace him; Democrats warned Reagan there would be a fight.
Reagan nominated Bork for the seat on July 1, 1987.
Within 45 minutes of Bork's nomination to the Court, Ted Kennedy (D-MA) took to the Senate floor with a strong condemnation of Bork in a nationally televised speech, declaring, "Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of government." TV ads narrated by Gregory Peck attacked Bork as an extremist. Kennedy's speech successfully fueled widespread public skepticism of Bork's nomination. The rapid response of Kennedy's "Robert Bork's America" speech stunned the Reagan White House; though conservatives considered Kennedy's accusations slanderous, the attacks went unanswered for two and a half months.
A hotly contested United States Senate debate over Bork's nomination ensued, partly fueled by strong opposition by civil and women's rights groups concerned with what they claimed was Bork's desire to roll back civil rights decisions of the Warren and Burger courts. Bork is one of three Supreme Court nominees to ever be opposed by the ACLU.
During debate over his nomination, Bork's video rental history was leaked to the press, which led to the enactment of the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act. His video rental history was unremarkable, and included such harmless titles as A Day at the Races, Ruthless People and The Man Who Knew Too Much. The list of rentals was originally printed by Washington D.C.'s City Paper.
To pro-choice legal groups, Bork's originalist views and his belief that the Constitution does not contain a general "right to privacy" were viewed as a clear signal that, should he become a Justice on the Supreme Court, he would vote to reverse the Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. Accordingly, a large number of left-wing groups mobilized to press for Bork's rejection, and the resulting 1987 Senate confirmation hearings became an intensely partisan battle. Bork was faulted for his bluntness before the committee, including his criticism of the reasoning underlying Roe v. Wade. On October 23, 1987, the Senate rejected Bork's confirmation, with 42 Senators voting in favor and 58 voting against. Senators David Boren (D-OK) and Ernest Hollings (D-SC) voted in favor, with Senators John Chafee (R-RI), Bob Packwood (R-OR), Richard Shelby (D-AL), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Robert Stafford (R-VT), John Warner (R-VA) and Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. (R-CT) all voting nay. The vacant seat on the court to which Bork was nominated eventually went to Judge Anthony Kennedy.
The history of Bork's disputed nomination is still a lightning rod in the contentious debate over the limits of the "Advice and Consent of the Senate" that Article Two of the United States Constitution requires for judicial nominees of the President.
Bork, unhappy with his treatment in the nomination process, resigned his appellate-court judgeship in 1988.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bork-------------------
At any rate, Joe Biden was the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, at that time, and played a huge role in keeping Bork from being confirmed. There are a lot of articles out there about it, and if you do a search on Google, you'll find all the info you can stand.
Here is one;
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Mr. Biden's assurances that he will oppose the nomination represented an important shift by the powerful liberal Democrat that could add to pressures on uncommitted Senators, Presidential candidates and other prominent Democrats to take early positions on the Bork nomination. In the past, Mr. Biden has sought to avoid a politically and ideologically partisan approach to judicial nominations.
Some liberal and civil rights groups say that stopping Judge Bork's nomination will be their major priority of the Reagan era.
Judge Bork, who sits on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, is known to have conservative positions on such issues as abortion, capital punishment and government aid to religious schools. It has been widely assumed that, if seated, he could tip the balance of the Supreme Court to the right for years to come.
A civil rights official who attended the meeting today and spoke on the condition that he not be identified said of Mr. Biden, ''He made it very clear to us that he knows what he's going to do, and that he considers the confirmation fight so important that he's willing to work on this, and not on the Presidential campaign.''
According to Congressional sources, among those attending today's meeting with Senator Biden were Ralph G. Neas, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; Judith L. Lichtman of the Women's Legal Defense Fund; Elaine Jones, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Nan Aron of the Alliance for Justice.
Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee also said today that hearings on Judge Bork's nomination would not begin until Sept. 15.
Mr. Biden, speaking at a news conference, promised a ''full and thorough and fair'' review of the qualifications of Judge Bork. Biggest Nomination in Years
''This is probably the most significant Supreme Court nomination in the last several decades, and arguably in this century,'' Mr. Biden said.
But for all the talk of open-mindedness, Mr. Biden left little doubt about where he stood on the nomination.
At stake, Mr. Biden said was whether the Reagan Administration's agenda would be accomplished through the Court, and whether Judge Bork had been picked to accomplish it, according to accounts of those at the meeting.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE0DA1331F93AA35754C0A961948260
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