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In case it wasn't already clear, I am opposed to the nomination of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court.
The latest, and for me final straw is this story in today's Washington Post:
Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers said in a speech more than a decade ago that “self-determination” should guide decisions about abortion and school prayer and that in cases where scientific facts are disputed and religious beliefs vary, “government should not act.”
In an undated speech given in the spring of 1993 to the Executive Women of Dallas, Miers appeared to offer a libertarian view of several topics in which the law and religious beliefs were colliding in court.
“The ongoing debate continues surrounding the attempt to once again criminalize abortions or to once and for all guarantee the freedom of the individual women’s [sic] right to decide for herself whether she will have an abortion,” Miers said.
Those seeking to resolve such disputes would do well to remember that “we gave up” a long time ago on “legislating religion or morality,” she said. And “when science cannot determine the facts and decisions vary based upon religious belief, then government should not act.”
“My basic message here is that when you hear the courts blamed for activism or intrusion where they do not belong, stop and examine what the elected leadership has done to solve the problem at issue,” she said.
These are not the words of an "originalist", these are not the words of someone who thinks judges should not legislate from the bench, these are not the words of a conservative. This is not what the president should be seeing when he looks into the heart of a potential nominee.
I am convinced that she is not only woefully unqualified for the position, but that she would be horribly bad as a justice from every perspective that matters to me as a lawyer, former judge, and Conservative Republican Pro-Life Catholic Red Sox fanatic. (While I'm not sure what her position on baseball would be, I feel confident in asserting that she would screw that up as well.)
STOP, Mr. President. STOP! Please!
[UPDATE] Wow! That didn't take long! Now, Mr. President, about my application . . . I got a B- in Constitutional Law. That's good, right?
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