I am announcing today that in accordance with my duty under the Constitution, I intend

to nominate and ask the Senate to confirm Judge Douglas Ginsburg of the United States

Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for the position of Associate Justice

of the Supreme Court.

That was President Ronald Reagan on October 29, 1987, announcing his selection of 41-year-old

Douglas Ginsburg to fill in vacancy on the Supreme Court.

It came at a critical moment in the ongoing political wars over the direction of the court.

Justice Lewis Powell and Nixon appointee had resigned.

And Reagan's first choice to replace him, hard-lying conservative Robert Bork, provoked

an epic ideological battle that ultimately resulted in his nomination going down in flames.

At first glance, it looked like Ginsburg would have far smoother sailing.

A Harvard Law Professor who had once clerked for Thurgood Marshall, the court's first

African-American justice and a liberal icon, Ginsburg had gone on to work for the Reagan

Justice Department and had been easily confirmed for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals just

a year earlier.

But then, a news story, broken by Nina Todeberg, the court reporter for National Public Radio,

quickly changed things.

Unlike Bork, Ginsburg's nomination didn't go down in flames.

It went up in smoke.

We'll discuss on today's buried treasure.

I'm Michael Isikov, Chief Investigator of Correspondent for Yahoo News.

And I'm the Includement Editor-in-Chief of Yahoo News.

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