It seems worlds away from the confirmation process that Justice Sandra Day O’Connor underwent almost four decades ago. We should reembrace the principles of that time, when iconic figures such as O’Connor and President Ronald Reagan, who appointed her, set shining examples of civil behavior even amid hotly contested debate.

The Left vs. Right politicization of Supreme Court nominations began when the Senate examined a later Reagan nominee, Judge Robert Bork. Bork was mercilessly grilled for five days in 1987 by a group led by Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, and his nomination was ultimately defeated. It was such a watershed event that it even added a new word to the English lexicon. To “bork,” according to Merriam-Webster, means “to attack or defeat (a nominee or candidate for public office) unfairly through an organized campaign of harsh public criticism or vilification.”