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Bush Nominates Longtime Friend and Attorney Harriet Miers for Supreme Court
President Bush has selected White House counsel Harriet Miers to replace retiring Suprem Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. If confirmed, Miers - who has never served as a judge - would become the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Last year, Legal Times reported that Miers "has long been one of the most discreet, most private, and most protective members of George W. Bush's inner circle."
President Bush is nominating his longtime friend and attorney Harriet Miers to serve on the Supreme Court. This according to the Associated Press.
The 60-year-old Miers is currently working as White House counsel and was formerly President Bush's personal lawyer in Texas. Miers met Bush in the 1980s and she was counsel for his 1994 campaign for governor. He appointed her chair of the Texas Lottery Commission in 1995.
If confirmed by the Senate, Miers will fill Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat and become the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court. As an attorney, she was the first woman to serve as president of the Texas State Bar and the Dallas Bar Association. Miers has never served as a judge. Without a judicial record, it may be difficult for Senators to know where Miers stands on key issues facing the court. Last year, Legal Times reported that Miers "has long been one of the most discreet, most private, and most protective members of George W. Bush's inner circle."
* Jamin Raskin, American University Law professor and author of "Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court vs. the American People."
* Nan Aron, President of the Alliance for Justice which is a national association of public interest and civil rights organizations.
* Ted Goldman, congressional correspondent for the Legal Times. He wrote an article about Miers in December 2004 titled "Down to the Last Detail; Bush's pick for White House counsel sports an exacting style"
LISTEN ONLINE:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/03/1353231
The 60-year-old Miers is currently working as White House counsel and was formerly President Bush's personal lawyer in Texas. Miers met Bush in the 1980s and she was counsel for his 1994 campaign for governor. He appointed her chair of the Texas Lottery Commission in 1995.
If confirmed by the Senate, Miers will fill Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat and become the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court. As an attorney, she was the first woman to serve as president of the Texas State Bar and the Dallas Bar Association. Miers has never served as a judge. Without a judicial record, it may be difficult for Senators to know where Miers stands on key issues facing the court. Last year, Legal Times reported that Miers "has long been one of the most discreet, most private, and most protective members of George W. Bush's inner circle."
* Jamin Raskin, American University Law professor and author of "Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court vs. the American People."
* Nan Aron, President of the Alliance for Justice which is a national association of public interest and civil rights organizations.
* Ted Goldman, congressional correspondent for the Legal Times. He wrote an article about Miers in December 2004 titled "Down to the Last Detail; Bush's pick for White House counsel sports an exacting style"
LISTEN ONLINE:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/03/1353231
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The Republican high command was under new pressure yesterday as President Bush was forced into a long defence of his latest Supreme Court nominee, and the party's erstwhile congressional powerhouse Tom DeLay faced new and career-threatening campaign finance charges.
As he tries to emerge from the roughest stretch of his presidency, Mr Bush was hoping that, by choosing his White House Counsel, Harriet Miers, for the Supreme Court, he would secure another much-needed political boost to add to the convincing confirmation of John Roberts as the new Chief Justice.
Instead, he is being assailed by some conservatives - normally his most steadfast supporters - for missing a chance to set the court on a firmly rightward path and seeming to indulge, yet again, in the vice of cronyism.
The President had been handed "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to return the court to constitutionalism", the staunch conservative Patrick Buchanan, a former White House candidate, commented accidly. But "George Bush passed over a dozen of the finest jurists of his day - to name his personal lawyer."
Mr Bush was forced to devote fully half of his hour-long press conference to making the conservative case for Ms Miers, calling her a "strict constitutionalist" who would not seek to broaden the law by legislating from the bench. And, he insisted, "She won't change."
Mr Bush also rejected charges of cronyism, saying: "I picked the best person I could find." He described Ms Miers as "enormously qualified", even though she has never sat on the bench and seems less obviously qualified than several other candidates touted for the vacancy.
The appointment could drag the White House into another bruising political battle. Although Democrats have generally given a cautious welcome to Ms Miers - to the irritation of conservatives - they are bound to seek documents setting out her advice to Mr Bush, to gain an idea of her thinking on the main issues.
Mr Bush made clear yesterday he would refuse any such move. To do so, the President contended, would violate the doctrine of "executive privilege," and discourage people from giving frank advice to the President.
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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article317206.ece
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