On Oct. 3, President George W. Bush nominated Harriet Miers to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court. Miers has never been a judge, but she is qualified in more than one way for the job.
She has been president of the Texas and Dallas bar associations, the first woman to hold either job.
She has been head of legal council in the White House since 2004, although her official position was deputy chief of staff for policy.
If confirmed she will join Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg as the only two women on the Supreme Court.
The nomination will be hard for liberals to fight, because of her lack of bench experience.
In fact, many democrats in Congress recommended her for the job. It is a risky pick for the president though, with her lack of judicial record.
But as a member of her inner circle, he knows her better than Judge Roberts, who breezed through his nomination last month.
O’Connor was supposed to be a judicial conservative when she was nominated, but sat on the middle of the political spectrum once she was on the job for a few years.
“Like Justice O’Connor, Ms. Miers has broken through barriers in the law, serving as a leader and role model, and impressing everyone with her decency and her sharp intellect,” said Rick Garnett, a law professor at Notre Dame and former law clerk to late Chief Justice William Rehnquist. “She would be a worthy and appropriate successor to Justice O’Connor and would carry to the court a commitment to constitutionalism, judicial restraint and the rule of law.”
Although these isn’t much in her record to have grounds for protesting Miers, it only makes sense that half the democrats in Congress will oppose her nomination based on her party affiliation (like Roberts, who was opposed by the usual far-left liberals: Hillary Clinton-D NY, John F. Kerry-D. Mass.. Edward M. Kennedy-D Mass. And Harry Reid-D NV).
This nomination will show whether or not the democrats have finally started to come together and form a platform for their party.
If they can learn to stand together here and make some good points about Bush’s nomination, maybe they can come together for the next election-but probably not.