The Clarence Thomas Nomination

In 1991, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American justice on the court,  planned to retire due to ill health. On July 1, President George H.W. Bush announced that he would nominate Clarence Thomas, a 43-year old black federal judge from Georgia.  Though Thomas would be expected to fill the "black seat" that Marshall would be leaving, unlike Marshall, Thomas was ideologically conservative. As such, his nomination faced immediate criticism from groups such the NAACP and National Organization for Women. Legal groups such as the National Bar called into question Thomas' qualification and experience, as Thomas had only been a judge for two years.

Clarence Thomas

The first few days of nomination hearings before the Senate Judicial Committee were uneventful or non-noteworthy, beside Thomas' assertion that he had not formed an opinion on legal abortion. The committee's recommendation vote was split 7-7, so the nomination moved to Senate for a vote, with many assuming Thomas would be confirmed easily. The nomination soon took an about-turn when a classified report was leaked, the contents of which contained allegations by Anita Hill, a University of Oklahoma law professor and former colleague of Thomas that Thomas had sexual harassed her while both were working together.

Anita Hill

Anita Hill was called to testify before the Judiciary Committee on October 11. Hill alleged that Thomas had harassed her by talking to her about pornographic movies and other sexually inappropriate matters after Hill had refused Thomas invitation to date her. Hill's testimony was supported by statements from friends and former colleagues Angela Wright and Rose Jourdain. Statements in support of Thomas came from former colleagues as well, who claimed there had been no signs of harassment. Thomas himself denied the allegations and decried it as "high-tech lynching of uppity blacks".

On October 15, in one of the most narrow confirmation votes in a century, the Senate confirmed Thomas 52-48. The vote was mostly among party lines, with 41 Republicans & 11 Democrats voting to confirm, with 46 Democrats and 2 Republicans voting nay. This seems to illustrate the increasingly polarizing event Supreme Court nominations had become since the Robert Bork nomination in 1987. Thomas' nomination was one of the most controversial nominations in American political history. A significant aspect of the hearings was that the number of sexual harassment lawsuits doubled from 1991 to 1996, possibly an effect of Hill's testimony. Hill's testimony itself is still controversial and is still making news today. Only last year, Thomas' wife left a voice message on Anita Hill's message machine demanding a apology for Hill's testimony against her husband.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas_Supreme_Court_nomination
http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/hill/hilloutline2.htm