Robert Bork Dead At 85

Rejected Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork has died at the age of 85. The cause was pulmonary disease.

Bork was among the most polarizing figures in American law and conservative politics for more than four decades. When Bork was solicitor general in 1973, he fired Archibald Cox as a special prosecutor on the order of President Richard Nixon to help in the Watergate cover-up.  President Ronald Regan nominated Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987. In a 58-to-42 vote, the Senate rejected his nomination -- it was by one of the widest margins in U.S. history. Republicans have long said his defeat was a completely partisan move and have said Bork was one of the greatest conservative figures in history.