Until recently, Supreme Court nominees tended to sail through congressional approval even when the President who nominates candidates was different from the majority party that approves them. Bork was the first one in a long time who was rejected by the Democrats.

But note that Bork was not a mainline candidate -- he had some significant baggage and was well outside the legal mainstream in his opinions on privacy. It was that latter thing that sank Bork, who held that there is no guarantee of privacy.

https://schoolworkhelper.net/robert-borks-the-right-of-priva...

The baggage was related to Watergate. When it became apparent to Nixon that Watergate was going to sink him, Nixon tried to get the special prosecutor dismissed. Nobody would do it, except Bork:

> Richard Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox; Richardson refused and resigned effective immediately. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox; Ruckelshaus refused, and also resigned. Nixon then ordered the third-most-senior official at the Justice Department, Solicitor General Robert Bork, to fire Cox. Bork considered resigning, but instead carried out the dismissal as Nixon asked.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre

Actually Robert Bork, and I misremembered : not actually compromising, but worse, a reporter being a smart Alec. Bork had asserted that there was no right to privacy so a reporter set out to demonstrate that invading his privacy would upset him.

https://web.archive.org/web/20071009150938/http://www.theame...

Bork was an originalist so I doubt invading his privacy would change his stance. Kind of a dumb move by the reporter.

Except that it worked...

It's great when sanctimonious fools like Bork are hoist by their own petard.

I don't know the specifics of this case... but back then, video rental stores did big business renting porn. That definitely could ruin a career or two, especially in those days.

The chains like Blockbuster had no porn, at least none that I ever saw. Maybe the independent stores did?

Yes, I remember a 21+ section in the rental store as a kid, in a small room next to the kids section and partitioned by a ribbon curtain.