Senator Cory Booker (D., N.J.) said during the CNN Democratic presidential debate that Robert Bork was "right now laughing" at American antitrust policy, despite the famed conservative jurist's death years earlier.
Asked if he would break up tech companies like Facebook and Amazon if elected president, Booker responded that "we have a massive crisis in our democracy with the way these tech companies are being used, not just in terms of anti-competitive practices, but also to undermine our democracy."
"We need regulation and reform. And antitrust, I mean, Robert Bork right now is laughing in his sleep," Booker said. "We have a reality in this country where antitrust from pharma to farms is causing trouble, and we have to deal with this."
Despite displaying familiarity with the D.C. Circuit judge and Yale Law professor's scholarship on antitrust legislation, Booker evidently missed the fact that Bork passed away in 2012 from heart disease.
Booker was not the last candidate to name-drop Bork during the debate. Former vice president Joe Biden later touted his role in killing President Ronald Reagan's nomination of Bork to the Supreme Court.
"When I defeated Robert Bork, I made sure we guaranteed a woman's right to choose for the better part of a generation," said Biden, the former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.