Harriet Miers

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President George W. Bush nominates Harriet Miers on October 3, 2005. Harriet Miers Nominated.jpg
President George W. Bush nominates Harriet Miers on October 3, 2005.

On July 1, 2005, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her intention to retire upon the confirmation of a successor. Bush appointed Miers as head of the search committee for candidates. On July 19, Bush nominated John Roberts to replace O'Connor. However, several weeks later, Chief Justice William Rehnquist died of thyroid cancer. Bush then withdrew Roberts from consideration as O'Connor's replacement, instead nominating Roberts to fill the Chief Justice vacancy. The Senate confirmed Roberts on September 29.

Meanwhile, Bush considered nominating Miers as O'Connor's successor, factoring into account bipartisan suggestions by Senators Arlen Specter and Patrick Leahy, that the nominee should come from outside the appellate court system. [26] This caused several commentators to draw parallels with the 2000 election, when Dick Cheney, the head of Bush's vice-presidential search committee, was ultimately selected as the running mate. [26]

On October 3, 2005, Bush nominated Miers to serve as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, saying, "Harriet Miers will be the type of judge I said I would nominate: a good conservative judge." [27] Miers's nomination was criticized by people of various political views for the fact that she had never served as a judge at any level, her perceived lack of intellectual rigor, her close personal ties to Bush, and her lack of a clear record on issues likely to be encountered as a Supreme Court Justice. Many notable conservatives vigorously criticized her nomination, and numerous conservative groups normally considered part of Bush's political base planned to mount an organized opposition campaign.

Miers met with the Senate Judiciary Committee after her nomination and in those meetings she was ill-prepared and uninformed on the law. [28] Senator Tom Coburn told her privately that she "flunked" and "[was] going to have to say something next time." [28] Miers had difficulty expressing her views and explaining basic constitutional law concepts. [29] Miers had no experience in constitutional law and did not have extensive litigation experience; at her Texas law firm, she had been more of a manager. [30] In addition, Miers had rarely handled appeals and did not understand the complicated constitutional questions senators asked of her. [30] To White House lawyers, Miers was "less an attorney than a law firm manager and bar association president." [31]

In an unprecedented move, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter and ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy also requested that Miers re-do some of her answers to the questionnaire submitted to her by the committee, noting that her responses were "inadequate", "insufficient", and "insulting" because she failed or refused to adequately answer various questions with acceptable accuracy or with sufficient detail. [32] Miers also was claimed to have privately expressed a belief in the right to privacy to the pro-choice Arlen Specter, only to later deny that she had communicated that position. [33] Her answers also included an error on constitutional law where she mentioned an explicit constitutional right for proportional representation; though many court rulings have found that legislative and other districts of unequal population violate the equal protection clause, the right to proportional districts is not explicitly mentioned in the United States Constitution. [34]

Overall, Miers received an unfavorable response in private meetings with senators. Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Sam Brownback then drafted a letter asking the President's office to turn over legal memoranda and briefs Miers had written for Bush, in order to elucidate her views on political matters. [35] Brownback and Graham knew the memos were protected by executive privilege, that the White House was not required to turn them over, and that Miers could refuse to deliver the memos and then ostensibly step down on principle. [35] Miers would later use this request as part of a face-saving exit strategy for stepping down. In her letter withdrawing her nomination, she pointed to the senators' request for confidential documents as potentially damaging the executive branch's independence. [36] On October 19, 2005, Specter and Leahy announced their intent to begin confirmation hearings for Miers on November 7, 2005. [37]

Speaking with NBC News' Meet the Press on October 23, 2005, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said: "...if you were to hold the vote today, she would not get a majority, either in the Judiciary Committee or on the floor." [38] However, speaking on CBS News' Face the Nation the same day, committee chair Specter said that most senators were waiting for the hearings before making up their mind. [39]

On October 27, 2005, Miers asked President Bush to withdraw her nomination, [40] citing fears that the nomination would create a "burden for the White House and its staff". [41] President Bush stated that the Senate's interest in internal White House documents "would undermine a president's ability to receive candid counsel" and that he had "reluctantly accepted" her request. [42] Miers was the first Supreme Court nominee to withdraw under duress since Douglas H. Ginsburg in 1987. [43]

Bush then nominated Samuel Alito for the seat on October 31, 2005. The Senate subsequently confirmed Alito on January 31, 2006. [44] Miers remained as White House Counsel for another year until announcing her resignation on January 4, 2007. [45]

Resignation and departure from the White House

Joshua B. Bolten, upon becoming President Bush's chief of staff in April 2006, pressed for Miers's resignation, but Bush rejected the idea. After the 2006 elections, when Democrats won a majority of both chambers of Congress, Bolten asked again for her departure, arguing that the president needed an aggressive lawyer and increased staff for the Office of Legal Counsel to fend off congressional inquiries and subpoenas. The second effort succeeded; Miers announced her resignation January 4, 2007 and left January 31, 2007. [46] [47] [48] In April 2007, Miers rejoined her previous firm, Locke Liddell & Sapp (now Locke Lord), and became a partner in its litigation and public policy group.

Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy

Harriet Miers
HarrietMiersFlagpin.jpg
Official portrait, 2005
White House Counsel
In office
February 3, 2005 January 31, 2007
Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy

Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, wrote to Miers in January 2006 to recommend that the Department of Justice and the Office of the Counsel to the President work together to seek the replacement of a limited number of U.S. Attorneys, saying that limiting the number of attorneys "targeted for removal and replacement" would "mitigat[e] the shock to the system that would result from an across-the-board firing." [49] In March 2007 the White House had suggested that the plan came from Miers, who had left the White House in January 2007, before the dismissal received public attention. [49] The firings have led to Congressional investigations regarding the dismissals.

On June 13, 2007, the Senate and House Judiciary Committees issued subpoenas to Miers and to Sara M. Taylor, former deputy assistant to President Bush and the White House director of political affairs, asking them to produce documents and appear before the committees to testify about what role, if any, both may have had in the U.S. Attorney firings controversy. Miers was requested to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 11, 2007. The White House reiterated its longstanding demand that no past or present White House officials would be permitted to testify under oath before the panels, and that private interviews, not under oath, and without transcripts would be permitted. The Chairs of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees reiterated that the White House terms were unacceptable. [50] Ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Arlen Specter (R-PA) said that the committee had "really had no response from the White House" regarding possible testimony on the firing of several U.S. attorneys, and that had prompted the subpoena to compel a response. Miers refused to appear before Congress because Bush ordered her not to. [51] [52] On Wednesday, July 25, 2007, the House Judiciary Committee voted 22–17 to cite Miers for contempt of Congress for her failure to appear before the committee in response to its subpoena. [53] On February 14, 2008, the full House of Representatives voted to cite her for contempt by a vote of 223–32. Many Republicans walked out of the chamber in protest, deriding the priorities of the speaker in calling the vote, as opposed to a vote on a surveillance bill. [54]

On March 4, 2009, Miers and former Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bush Karl Rove agreed to testify under oath before Congress about the firings of U.S. attorneys. [55]

Personal life

Miers is a close friend of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman. Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht has known her for more than 25 years. After Miers's nomination to the Supreme Court, Hecht was cited as an unofficial spokesperson representing her views.

In 1979, after she made partner in her law firm, she became an evangelical Christian after a series of long discussions with Hecht, who was her colleague at the firm. [56]

See also

References

Works cited
Notes
  1. Borger, Julian (October 4, 2005). "Bush offers crucial supreme court seat to his former lawyer". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
  2. Robert Battle. "Ancestry of Harriet Miers". William Addams Reitwiesner Genealogical Services. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
  3. Goodwyn, Wade (October 17, 2005). "Miers' Texas Past and Controversy Today". All Things Considered. NPR. Archived from the original on October 23, 2005. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  4. Todd S. Purdum and Neil A. Lewis (October 4, 2005). "Miers Known as a Hard-Working Advocate for the President". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 31, 2006. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  5. "Who is Harriet Miers". ABC News. 2005-10-27. Archived from the original on December 15, 2005.
  6. Egelko, Bob (October 5, 2005). "Miers interned with Melvin Belli but returned to Dallas". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on August 10, 2007. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  7. 1 2 "Harriet Miers Fast Facts". CNN . September 19, 2013. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  8. Schmidt, Peter (October 6, 2005). "Supreme Court Nominee Helped Set Up Lecture Series That Brought Leading Feminists to Southern Methodist U." Chronicle of Higher Education. Archived from the original on February 16, 2006. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  9. Schmall, Emily (October 19, 2005). "Will Miers help topple Roe v. Wade?". Salon . Archived from the original on May 9, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
  10. 1 2 "LOCKE LIDDELL: $ 22 Mil Settlement Serves as Warning to Other Law Firms". Class Action Reporter. 2 (83). InterNet Bankruptcy Library. May 1, 2000. Archived from the original on August 18, 2000. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  11. 1 2 3 Miers, Harriet. "United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States [Questionnaire]" (PDF). Retrieved February 26, 2022 via NYTimes.com.
  12. "Harriet Miers Oral History". Miller Center. February 1, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  13. Levinthal, Dave; Housewright, Ed (October 8, 2005). "On council, Miers reserved to a point". The Dallas Morning News. p. 1A. Retrieved February 26, 2022 via NewsBank.
  14. Toner, Robin (October 4, 2005). "Miers Was Leader in Effort Within Bar to Rescind Support for Abortion". The New York Times.
  15. "Lawyers Drop Request For ABA Abortion Poll" Orlando Sentinel (February 9, 1993).
  16. Gillman, Todd J.; Torbenson, Eric (April 18, 2007). "Miers returning to law firm". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on May 20, 2007. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  17. Eisenberg, Carol (August 19, 2008). "Harriet Miers goes to bat for Pakistan". Muckety. Archived from the original on August 23, 2008.
  18. Julian Borger (October 4, 2005). "Bush offers crucial supreme court seat to his former lawyer". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on October 7, 2008. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
  19. "It's rollover time for the Lottery". The Observer. London. Archived from the original on April 18, 2001. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  20. Lardner, George Jr. (September 21, 1999). "Texas Speaker Reportedly Helped Bush Get Into Guard". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 12, 2012. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  21. "76(R) HCR 153 Introduced version - Bill Text". Archived from the original on 2006-08-27. Retrieved 2006-08-27.
  22. Texans for Public Justice (October 2000). "Governor Bush's Well-Appointed Texas Officials: Well-Appointed State Boards". Texans for Public Justice. Archived from the original on January 30, 2004. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  23. David Frum. "Sep. 29, 2005: Justice Miers?". Archived from the original on 2006-11-15.
  24. "Documents Show Supreme Court Nominee's Close Ties to Bush". The New York Times. October 11, 2005. Retrieved May 4, 2010.
  25. Savage, David G. (October 18, 2005). "In Speeches, Miers Heaped Praise on President". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 4, 2010.
  26. 1 2 "Bush picks White House counsel for Supreme Court". CNN. October 4, 2005. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
  27. "Bush Works to Reassure G.O.P. Over Nominee for Supreme Court". The New York Times. October 9, 2005.
  28. 1 2 Greenburg 2008, p. 278.
  29. Greenburg 2008, pp. 278–279.
  30. 1 2 Greenburg 2008, p. 279.
  31. Greenburg 2008, p. 280.
  32. Greenburg 2008, p. 281.
  33. Greenburg 2008, pp. 280–281.
  34. Babington, Charles; Fletcher, Michael A. (October 20, 2005). "Senators Assail Miers's Replies, Ask for Details". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 24, 2005. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  35. 1 2 Greenburg 2008, p. 282.
  36. Greenburg 2008, p. 284.
  37. "More controversy over Miers". CNN. October 18, 2005. Archived from the original on October 24, 2005. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  38. "Transcript for October 23". Meet the Press. NBC News. October 23, 2005. Archived from the original on October 29, 2005. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  39. "Senator: Miers Lacks Votes To Win". CBS News. October 23, 2005. Archived from the original on February 15, 2006. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  40. Markels, Alex (27 October 2005). "Why Miers Withdrew as Supreme Court Nominee". NPR.org.
  41. "Harriet Miers withdrawal letter". msnbc.com. October 27, 2005.
  42. "CNN.com - Miers withdraws Supreme Court nomination - Oct 28, 2005". CNN.
  43. Cooper, Matthew (October 27, 2005). "Behind the Miers Withdrawal". Time. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
  44. Glass, Andrew (October 31, 2013). "Bush nominates Alito, Oct. 31, 2005". Politico.
  45. "Bush's top lawyer Miers resigns". BBC. 2007-01-04. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
  46. Johnston, David and Sheryl Gay Stolberg. Gonzales Seems Confident He Will Stay, Officials Say The New York Times May 10, 2007. Retrieved May 10, 2007.
  47. Baker, Peter; R. Jeffrey Smith (January 5, 2007). "Miers Steps Down As White House Gears Up for Battle". The New York Times. pp. A01. Retrieved 2007-05-23.
  48. Madway, Gabriel (January 4, 2007). "Miers Resigns As White House Counsel". Market Watch. Retrieved 2007-05-23.
  49. 1 2 Eggen, Dan; John Solomon (March 13, 2007). "Firings Had Genesis in White House Ex-Counsel Miers First Suggested Dismissing Prosecutors 2 Years Ago, Documents Show". The Washington Post. p. Page A01. Retrieved 2007-03-13.
  50. Stout, David (June 13, 2007). "Congress Subpoenas Miers and Another Former Bush Aide". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
  51. Marre, Klaus (June 13, 2007). "Specter endorses subpoena of White House official". The Hill. Capitol Hill Publishing. Archived from the original on June 3, 2008. Retrieved 2007-06-14.
  52. "Senate Judiciary Committee Subpoena of Harriet Miers". Gonzales Watch. 2007-06-13. Archived from the original on June 29, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
  53. Stout, David (July 25, 2007). "Panel Holds Two Bush Aides in Contempt". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-09-22. The House Judiciary Committee voted today to seek contempt of Congress citations against a top aide to President Bush and a former presidential aide over their refusal to cooperate in an inquiry about the firing of federal prosecutors.... president's chief of staff, and Harriet E. Miers
  54. Shenon, Philip (February 15, 2008). "House Votes to Issue Contempt Citations". The New York Times. Retrieved May 4, 2010.
  55. "Karl Rove, Harriet Miers To Testify Before House Judiciary Committee". HuffPost .
  56. Ed Wyatt and Simone Romero of The New York Times (August 29, 2010). "A BORN-AGAIN NOMINEE". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on August 10, 2007.
Political offices
Preceded by White House Staff Secretary
2001–2003
Succeeded by
Preceded by White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy
2003–2005
Succeeded by
Legal offices
Preceded by White House Counsel
2005–2007
Succeeded by