« Peruvian Ants Kill All But One Type of Tree... | Main | Dalrymple talks about his ideas... »
October 03, 2005
Worst Supreme Court Nominee in my Life...
The current president's nominee to replace Justice O'Conner is Harriet Miers. Ms. Miers has been Mr. Bush's personal lawyer for at least 10 years.
This is an aweful choice for a Supreme Court Justice, easily the worst such choice since his father picked Clarence Thomas. Ms. Miers has never been a judge nor has she even argued a case before the Supreme Court. She has no major professional qualifications, no great background, no books, she has nothing to justify such a high office. Her close personal ties to the president, while nice for Mr. Bush, are not a desirable feature for a candidate for the Supreme Court.
I agree with Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSblog when he says
- The themes of the opposition will be cronyism and inexperience. Democratic questioning at the hearings will be an onslaught of questions about federal constitutional law that Miers in all likelihood won't want to, or won't be able to (because her jobs haven't called on her to study the issues), answer. I have no view on whether she should be confirmed (it's simply too early to say), but will go out on a limb and predict that she will be rejected by the Senate. In my view, Justice O'Connor will still be sitting on the Court on January 1, 2006.
This nomination should be defeated. The President was foolish to select (again) the person who headed his nomination committe.
Historical parallel: None other than Dick Cheney was the head of George Bush's Vice Presidential nominating committe. Instead of choosing one of the people Cheney recommended for the job, Bush picked Cheney. Picking Miers is the same behavior. Cheney was not a bad choice back in 2000 but not a great one either. Miers strikes me as a terrible choice in 2005.
Posted by rakhier at October 3, 2005 12:48 PM