Robert Bork Robert Bork of the American Enterprise Institute. (Photo: Stacey Cramp)

The U.S. Supreme Court confirmation process and how it devolved into highly charged partisan battles is the focus of a new investigative documentary—”Supreme Revenge”—airing Tuesday night on PBS's Frontline program.

The film contends the failed 1987 nomination of President Ronald Reagan's nominee, Judge Robert Bork, spurred a desire for revenge by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, who warned that Democrats would “rue the day” for what he considered was an unfair attack on Bork's conservative ideology.

From the Bork fight, the film moves to the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings and the growth and increasing influence of special interest groups. There is a special focus on the Federalist Society, which has participated in and helped shape the judicial nomination process in the Trump administration. The film airs at 10 p.m. Tuesday. The trailer can be viewed here.

The Supreme Court nomination of then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh is the culmination of McConnell's vow for revenge, according to the film. Kavanaugh was confirmed last year after a bruising fight in which he was accused, as a high school teenager, of sexually assaulting a girl. He denied the claims.

“From Bork to Kavanaugh, our film tells the essential political history of how a 30-year-old grievance transformed the court and turned confirmations into vehemently partisan conflicts,” Frontline filmmaker Michael Kirk said in a statement. Kirk, who has won major broadcast journalism awards, has produced more than 100 hours of Frontline video. His films include “Trump's Road to the White House,” “McCain,” “Divided States of America,” and “Trump's Showdown.”

“Supreme Revenge” draws on dozens of interviews with key current and former U.S. senators, including Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, and Heidi Heitkamp, D-North Dakota, and White House and congressional staffers. The filmmakers also spoke with legal experts, authors, journalists and insiders from many presidential administrations, including former George W. Bush Solicitor General Theodore Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

Susan Collins Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)

As part of the Frontline Transparency Project, Frontline will publish a digital collection of extended video and text interviews with key sources, including Collins, Graham, Klobuchar, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, and former Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, Heitkamp, and Alan Simpson, R-Wyoming, who share their firsthand insights into the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, and the politicization of the Supreme Court as an institution.

Confirmation clashes will also get a spotlight in a new film tentatively called “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas In His Own Words.” Manifold Productions said it intends “to make a film that will tell the Clarence Thomas story truly and fully, without cover-ups or distortions.” The company said it is planning for “national broadcast on PBS and ongoing educational use in classrooms.”

Manifold Productions is headed by film producer Michael Pack, former CEO of the Claremont Institute think tank. His films include “Rediscovering Alexander Hamilton” and “Inside the Republican Revolution: The First 100 days.”

 

Read more:

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Gorsuch Will Share 'Personal Stories,' From Upbringing to Confirmation, in New Book

Brett Kavanaugh Walks Back His Angry Senate Testimony