WASHINGTON, 4 October 2005 — President Bush named Texan Harriet Miers, his White House counsel and long time confidant, to replace outgoing Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. He described his nominee as a legal “trailblazer” who will strictly interpret the Constitution.
Bush made his announcement yesterday morning, less than two hours before the Supreme Court opened its current term under new Chief Justice John Roberts, whom Bush nominated following the death of William Rehnquist. In unveiling his latest choice, Bush said Miers would serve as a skilled and committed addition to the nine-member court. Standing alongside Bush, the 60-year-old former Dallas attorney said she was “humbled” by the nomination and promised to be “true to the founder’s” vision if confirmed to become the nation’s 110th justice.
With his approval rating falling in recent months, Bush has been under intense pressure to nominate a woman or a minority. If confirmed, Miers will join Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the second woman Supreme Court justice and the third in the court’s history.
In reaching into his loyal inner circle for another pick that could reshape the nation’s judiciary for years to come, Bush’s nomination of Miers fits the pattern that other presidents have sometimes followed: choosing a close friend and political factotum to serve on the high court.
Born, raised, educated and employed in Dallas, Miers is one of the people Bush brought to Washington with him when elected president. She is a graduate of Southern Methodist University, where she majored in mathematics. She went on to law school at SMU, earning her law degree in 1970 and going on to clerk for a federal judge in Dallas during a time when there were few female lawyers.
Miers was the first woman elected president of the Texas Bar Association and was a partner at the Texas law firm of Locke Liddell & Sapp. She was Bush’s personal attorney in Texas before coming to Washington to work in the Bush administration.
She also found time to volunteer and is the former board member of Exodus Ministries, a Christian organization describing itself as “established to assist ex-offenders and their families become productive members of society by meeting both their spiritual and physical needs.” Known for thoroughness and her low-profile, Miers is said to be one of the first staff members to arrive at the White House in the morning and among the last to leave. A trusted advisor to Bush, she has a reputation for keeping her mouth shut. Bush once called her: “a pit bull in size 6 shoes.” A longtime GOP functionary, she has given thousands of dollars to the campaigns of right-wing GOP stalwarts in Texas. But above all else, Miers is loyal to President Bush. Those who know her say it’s hard to imagine her putting faithfulness to the Supreme Court above faithfulness to the Bush family.
If confirmed, she would be a rare appointee with no experience as a judge at any level. And no judicial record may complicate any Democratic attempts to block her nomination. It is impossible to predict whether Miers, and recently appointed Chief Justice John Roberts, will shift the court to the right.
When Bush floated the idea of Miers last week, it did not spark immediate enthusiasm from one conservative legal scholar, John Eastman of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence at the Claremont Institute in Claremont, Calif.
“If he wants to give her judicial experience why doesn’t he nominate her to the Fifth Circuit (Court of Appeals)?” asked an exasperated Eastman last Thursday. Eastman is a former law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas.
“She has been a forceful advocate of conservative legal principles and judicial restraint throughout her career,” said Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the Federalist Society.
Democratic and Republican special interests groups are braced for a political brawl over the pick, but they may not get it. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, had urged the president to consider Miers, according to several officials familiar with Bush’s consultations with Congress.
