WASHINGTON (ABP) — President Bush has nominated a White House insider with no judicial experience to replace a moderate justice on the Supreme Court.
Just hours before the high court began its 2005-2006 term with new Chief Justice John Roberts at the helm Oct. 3, Bush announced he was tapping his top personal lawyer and longtime confidante, White House Counsel Harriet Miers, to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
“I believe that senators of both parties will find that Harriet Miers' talent, experience and judicial philosophy make her a superb choice to safeguard the constitutional liberties and equality of all Americans,” Bush said in announcing the pick. “Harriet Miers will strictly interpret our Constitution and laws. She will not legislate from the bench.”
In response, Miers said, “It is the responsibility of every generation to be true to the founders' vision of the proper role of the courts in our society. If confirmed, I recognize that I will have a tremendous responsibility to keep our judicial system strong, and to help ensure that the courts meet their obligations to strictly apply the laws and the Constitution.”
Miers, 60, has never served as a judge. Before joining Bush's administration in 2001, her career had been spent mostly as a private attorney, except for brief stints as chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission and a member of the Dallas City Council. She also served as Bush's personal lawyer while he was governor of Texas.
The Supreme Court has a long history of members who did not previously serve on the bench, including William Rehnquist, whose recent death created the opening that Roberts fills. Rehnquist had never served as a judge prior to his appointment, nor did several other famous justices, such as the late Byron White.
With virtually no legal “paper trail” to provide a clue to Miers' ideological leanings, her nomination to replace O'Connor's crucial “swing vote” is sure to draw intense scrutiny.
Roberts, the newly installed chief justice, is expected to be a reliable conservative like Rehnquist, his predecessor and mentor. But O'Connor was often the deciding vote on controversial social issues that the court decided with 5-4 decisions.
Because of the unknowns about her judicial philosophy, early reactions to Miers' selection were mostly cautious.
“We know even less about Harriet Miers than we did about John Roberts,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), a member of the Senate panel that will consider her nomination. “And because this is the critical swing seat on the court, Americans will need to know a lot more about Miers' judicial philosophy and legal background before any vote for confirmation.”
Likewise, some Bush supporters expressed caution about selecting someone whose legal views on abortion rights, gay rights, religion in public life and other controversial issues are unknown.
“The reaction of many conservatives today will be that the president has made possibly the most unqualified choice since Abe Fortas, who had been [President Lyndon Johnson's] lawyer,” said Manuel Miranda, who was ousted from the Senate Judiciary Committee's Republican staff and now is a conservative activist on judicial appointments. “However, the president deserves the benefit of a doubt, the nominee deserves the benefit of hearings, and every nominee deserves an up-or-down vote.”
Republican members of the Judiciary Committee were more positive. “Harriet Miers is a brilliant legal mind,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), himself a former judge, told reporters in a Capitol news conference following Bush's announcement. “It is clear that her past experiences have well prepared her for the honor of serving our country as a Supreme Court justice.”
And the Senate's most powerful Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, said Miers' lack of judicial experience is not a liability. “The Supreme Court would benefit from the addition of a justice who has real experience as a practicing lawyer,” he said. “The current justices have all been chosen from the lower federal courts. A nominee with relevant non-judicial experience would bring a different and useful perspective to the court.”
Miers received undergraduate and law degrees from Southern Methodist University in her hometown of Dallas. Early in her career, she clerked for Federal District Judge Joe Estes. She then became the first female attorney hired by a prominent Dallas law firm, Locke, Purnell, Rain and Harrell. She later became the group's first female president.
According to a biographical sketch provided by the White House, Miers “is single and very close to her family; two brothers and her mother live in Dallas and a third brother lives in Houston.”
Miers blazed trails in Texas legal circles by becoming the first woman to serve as president of the Dallas Bar Association and the Texas State Bar.
Her bar-association work provides one of the few possible clues to her ideological leanings. In 1992, she campaigned against a resolution that declared the nationwide American Bar Association in favor of abortion rights.
However, her public statements at the time did not indicate her views on Supreme Court decisions legalizing abortion but rather on her view that it was not appropriate for the association to take a stance on such a controversial issue.
But other events Oct. 3 reiterated the central role that abortion and other social issues will play in the likely battle over Miers' nomination. Just an hour after he announced his pick, Bush traveled to the court to observe Roberts' investiture ceremony on the high court's first day of business in its October 2005 term. As he and Roberts entered the court's marble building, a group of anti-abortion demonstrators outside paused to pray for him.