Bush chooses Miers for Supreme Court

President Bush nominated White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court today, turning to a lawyer who has never been a judge to replace Sandra Day O’Connor and help reshape the nation’s judiciary.

“She has devoted her life to the rule of law and the cause of justice,” Bush said as his first Supreme Court pick, Chief Justice John Roberts, took the bench for the first time just a few blocks from the White House.

If confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate, Miers, 60, would join Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the second woman on the nation’s highest court and the third to serve there. Miers was the first woman to serve as president of the Texas State Bar and the Dallas Bar Association.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist outlined a timetable calling for confirmation by Thanksgiving - a tight timetable by recent standards that allowed less than eight weeks for lawmakers to review her record, hold hearings and vote. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, made no commitment, saying he wanted a thorough confirmation proceeding.

O’Connor has been the court’s majority maker in dozens of controversial cases in recent years, casting deciding votes that upheld the 1973 ruling that established the constitutional right to an abortion, sustaining affirmative action programs and limiting the application of the death penalty.

Within hours of Bush’s announcement in the Oval Office, Miers travelled to the Capitol to begin courtesy calls on the senators who will vote on her nomination.

Frist, R-Tenn., was first on the list. His welcome was a statement in praise. “With this selection, the president has chosen another outstanding nominee to sit on our nation’s highest court,” it said.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid was complimentary, issuing a statement that said he likes Miers and adding “the Supreme Court would benefit from the addition of a justice who has real experience as a practicing lawyer.”

At the same time, he said he looked forward to the “process which will help the American people learn more about Harriet Miers, and help the Senate determine whether she deserves a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court.”

Reid had personally recommended that Bush consider Miers for nomination, according to several sources familiar with the president’s consultations with individual senators. Of equal importance as the White House maps its confirmation campaign is that the Nevada Democrat had warned Bush that the selection of any of several other contenders could trigger a bruising partisan struggle.

Other Democrats sounded anything but conciliatory. “The president has selected a loyal political ally without a judicial record to sit on the highest court in the land,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

At the same time, Republican strategists who spoke on condition of anonymity said they would have to work hard to assure the support of some of the more conservative Republicans in the Senate, particularly on the issue of abortion. All 55 GOP senators voted to confirm Roberts.

Little is known publicly about Miers’ position on abortion, an issue of surpassing importance to outside groups on both ends of the political spectrum.

When delegates to a national American Bar Association convention adopted a position in favor of abortion rights in 1992, she worked as head of the Texas state bar to force a reconsideration of the issue by submitting it to a referendum by the 360,000-membership. “This issue has brought on tremendous divisiveness and loss of membership…” she said in early 1993.

Miers, whom Bush called a trailblazer for women in the legal profession, said she was humbled by the nod.

Story Continues →