Nothing indicates whether Harriet Miers would be the same kind of justice, but she and Sandra Day O'Connor share similarities.
By BILL ADAIR, Times Washington Bureau Chief
Published October 9, 2005
[AP photo]
Harriet Miers has met with some of the same praise and critiques that Sandra Day O'Connor faced.
WASHINGTON - When the president announced his Supreme Court nominee, Democrats had lots of praise. But many conservative Republicans were skeptical and feared the Texas-born attorney might be too liberal and support abortion.
Some questioned whether she was qualified to serve on the nation's highest court. Commentator Patrick Buchanan groused that the Republican coalition was crumbling.
The White House did damage control, declaring the nominee a solid conservative who staunchly opposed abortion.
That episode, which played out in 1981 when President Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor, has striking parallels with President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to fill O'Connor's seat.
The two attorneys have more in common than the circumstances of their nominations. Both are women who rose through the male-dominated worlds of law and politics. Both held elected office and were skillful networkers.
Ultimately, O'Connor was confirmed by unanimous vote and went on to forge a permanent place in American history as the swing vote on an often-divided court. Legal analysts dubbed it the "O'Connor Court" and some said she was the second-most powerful person in the nation.
Miers, who stands to inherit O'Connor's seat, remains the unknown.
As an evangelical Christian and close aide to Bush, she might be a solid conservative vote on the court. But as an attorney who has been described as pragmatic, she might not.
Legal analysts and elected officials are now scouring her scant record, trying to determine what kind of justice she would be. Would she side with conservative justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas? Or would she become another O'Connor?
Echoes of 1981
Democrats cheered when Reagan picked O'Connor as the first woman for the court. House Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill called it "the best thing (Reagan) has done since he was inaugurated."
But conservative Republicans were unhappy. As a state senator, O'Connor voted to repeal Arizona's antiabortion law. Conservatives said Reagan had betrayed them, according to a biography of O'Connor by USA Today reporter Joan Biskupic. The liberal magazine The Nation complained that her record "is not even close to Supreme Court quality. She was not an exceptional lawyer or legal scholar, nor is she an outstanding judge."
Reagan said he was satisfied she was "right-to-life." O'Connor reassured senators, saying "the proper role of the judiciary is one of interpreting and applying the law, not making it."
Last week, Miers faced a similar reaction.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid called her "a trailblazer for women." But conservative Republicans said Bush betrayed them by choosing a crony instead of an ideologue.
David Frum, a conservative columnist and former White House speechwriter, wrote in his blog that "she is not good enough for the job."
The White House rushed to defend her. Bush and Vice President Cheney assured that she will interpret the law, not make it.
Two climbers
In her new book Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice, Biskupic shows how O'Connor was toughened on her family's ranch. A photo of O'Connor at age 10 shows her sullen. "For a girl so young, she looks unusually hardened," Biskupic writes. As a teenager, she drove the family pickup to deliver food to farmhands. When the tire went flat she had to change it herself.
She blossomed at Stanford University and then worked as an attorney in Phoenix. She deftly networked with influential Republicans such as Sen. Barry Goldwater and William Rehnquist.
Miers grew up in Dallas, the fourth of five children. As a teenager, she earned a varsity letter in tennis, but was shy and unsure of herself.
"Harriet is one of those people who just excelled in a very quiet way," said Tom Dunning, a Dallas businessman who has known her since childhood.
Just as O'Connor did in Phoenix, Miers moved through the ranks in Dallas, heading a law firm and becoming the first woman to lead the state Bar. She ran for the City Council, a nonpartisan, unpaid job, in 1989.
Lorlee Bartos, who managed her campaign, says Miers did her homework and gave a solid stump speech. "She is very disciplined, very committed," said Bartos, a Democrat.
Miers began working for George W. Bush in the early 1990s, serving as an attorney for his transition team when he was elected Texas governor. He appointed her to the state lottery commission to clean up the agency after scandals.
At the White House, she was the staff secretary, reviewing every speech, memo and letter that crossed the president's desk. She earned a reputation as a stickler for detail, anticipating Bush's reactions with amazing prescience.
Frum, the former Bush speechwriter, wrote that "Miers was best known, not as a conservative, not as a legal thinker, but as a petty bureaucrat."
Matthew Scully, a fellow speechwriter, had a more positive view.
"There was never any moment when you saw her in a panic," Scully said. "She was always in command and efficient in a quiet, unobtrusive way."
On the court
Democrats would love another O'Connor.
Ever since the 75-year-old justice announced her retirement last summer, they have been urging Bush to appoint someone like her.
But many Republicans view O'Connor as a disappointment. Although she voted with conservatives on states' rights cases, she sided with the liberals on abortion and gay rights.
Her votes on abortion cases are a sore point with many conservatives because of her statement in 1981 that she found abortion "abhorrent." Likewise, many conservatives were disappointed by her vote to strike down a Texas sodomy law.
So how would Miers vote?
It's hard to predict because, as a private attorney and a presidential aide for much of her career, Miers has little public record.
Bartos and Miers' close friend Nathan Hecht, a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, say she is opposed to abortion. But personal opposition does not necessarily mean she would vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Many public officials are personally opposed but support the decision.
Legal analysts say Miers, who is known for her loyalty to Bush, may feel pressured to vote with conservatives or support the president's position.
"This powerful pull of being loyal might force her to protect him," said Mary Cheh, a law professor at George Washington University.
Legal historian David Garrow said Miers, a judicial rookie, may be more easily influenced by a gregarious justice such as Scalia.
"O'Connor was intensely independent from the time she was a schoolgirl," he said. "She didn't need to be led or instructed and she wasn't going to be bullied. But I can easily see a scenario in which Harriet Miers sees Antonin Scalia as guaranteed protection."
Others expect Miers to be more moderate.
"She is not an ideologue," said Rena Pederson, the retired editorial page editor of the Dallas Morning News and longtime friend of Miers.
Pederson predicts Miers will be pragmatic - "in the mold of Sandra Day O'Connor."
Information from the Dallas Morning News and the Chicago Tribune was included in this report
