Miers Invites Questions on Abortion

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

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WASHINGTON – Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers may have unnecessarily left herself open to a battery of questions about her personal views on abortion by providing Senate Judiciary Committee members with what may be the only extant copy of a 16-year-old questionnaire on the issue of abortion.


The two-page, 10-question survey, which she filled out for an anti-abortion organization in Texas prior to a successful run for the Dallas City Council, was part of the 12 boxes of personal materials that Ms. Miers brought to Washington, D.C., from her home in Dallas over the weekend. Ms. Miers also supplied the 18 members of the Judiciary Committee with a 57-page response to questions they put to her last week about her professional work, writings, financial holdings, and experience in dealing with constitutional questions.


In the new questionnaire, Ms. Miers wrote that she is regularly faced with issues involving constitutional questions in her role as White House counsel and that in private practice she handled several cases dealing with constitutional issues. Among other cases, Ms. Miers mentioned handling the only modern case to address the Habitation Clause of the 12th Amendment, which bars electors from voting for a vice president and a president from the same state.


Ms. Miers also noted publicly for the first time that she had been considered to replace Justice O’Connor on the bench before the death of Chief Justice Rehnquist and that she indicated she did not wish to be in the running for the post. President Bush eventually nominated Judge John Roberts Jr. to replace Justice O’Connor, then nominated him for the job of chief justice upon the death of Rehnquist.


Ms. Miers said in the new questionnaire that she has never made any representations to any individuals or interest groups of how, if confirmed, she might rule on issues as a justice. She also offered a lengthy explanation of what she understands the phrase “judicial activism” to mean, outlining a view of humility and restraint similar to the one articulated by Chief Justice Roberts during his hearing. It makes a clear distinction between law and politics.


Democrats on the Judiciary Committee responded coolly to the new questionnaire. The ranking Democrat on the committee, Senator Leahy of Vermont, said Ms. Miers’s answers raised questions about whether she would be able to “maintain independence” from the Bush administration, in which she has worked for the past five years, and he said that her “lack of responsiveness” only heightened the burden she will face during the hearing.


The abortion survey may be equally nettlesome for Ms. Miers, Democratic senators said. Prominent conservatives have criticized Mr. Bush for more than two weeks because Ms. Miers had no public record on contentious court cases such as Roe. v. Wade. A number of anti-abortion groups had also been critical of the nominee. Ms. Miers was not known to have completed a questionnaire on the issue prior to her run for Dallas City Council in 1989 until she produced the copy over the weekend.


In the Texans United for Life survey, Ms. Miers said she would support the establishment of state and federal laws prohibiting abortion except in cases where the life of the mother was at stake. She said she would not accept the endorsement of any groups that openly support abortion rights, and she said she would “participate in pro-life rallies and special events.” The survey was not signed, but Kyleen Wright, the president of an organization that grew out of Texans United for Life, Texans for Life Coalition, said it is legitimate.


Ms. Wright, who said she was initially disappointed with the nomination, said yesterday that she had changed her mind on the strength of the questionnaire. She said that Ms. Miers would have had to request the group’s endorsement, that the survey would have been written for her personally, and that her answers reflected “a bold stand” at a time when anti-abortion groups were not popular in Dallas.


“This means a lot,” Ms. Wright told The New York Sun. “This means that she is the nominee we were looking for. It means that Bush kept his word and that she’s our Esther and not a Trojan Horse.”


Senate reaction to the abortion survey was mixed. Senator Allen, a Republican of Virginia who has expressed skepticism about Ms. Miers, read a copy of the survey and called it “interesting.” Senator Brownback, a Republican of Kansas who is eyeing a presidential run in 2008 and who has suggested that he might not vote for Ms. Miers because of her lack of conservative credentials, said he “took some comfort” from the questionnaire.


“My guess is she’s going to publicly say that doesn’t tell you how I’m going to vote on Roe as a legal matter,” Mr. Brownback said, “but I do think it does reveal some of her beliefs and intentions.”


Senator Feinstein, a Democrat on the Judiciary Committee who has criticized some of the conservative critics of Ms. Miers, told the Sun that she plans to press Ms. Miers aggressively on her answers to the 1989 questionnaire.


“I’m certainly going to question her very closely about it,” Ms. Feinstein said. “Obviously it raises questions about whether she can be unbiased when it comes to issues that related to the issues on the questionnaire.”


Republicans have asked for a hearing on the confirmation of Ms. Miers to begin November 7,but Democrats have signaled that they want more time. Senator Schumer, a Democrat of New York, said he does not think the proposed starting date is realistic. The majority leader of the Senate, Senator Frist of Tennessee, said yesterday that he intends to have the hearing start as early as possible.


“I am confident we will be able to complete the confirmation before Thanksgiving,” he said.

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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