SCOTUS WATCH: Justice Harriet E. Miers?
While we are waiting for Judge John Robert’s confirmation this morning (thee confirmation roll call vote in the U.S. Senate has begun) let’s look at some of the candidates mentioned for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s seat.
Flap continues to handicap the following as the next nominees:
With the nomination going to Judge Owen.
But, the New York Times has Bush Reported Near to Nominating Judge.
President Bush is close to naming a successor to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and could announce his choice this week, Republicans close to the White House said Wednesday.
One name that was the source of enormous speculation in Washington legal and political circles was Harriet E. Miers, the White House counsel, who is a leader in the search for Justice O’Connor’s successor. Ms. Miers, 60, was the first woman to become a partner at a major Texas law firm and the first woman to be president of the State Bar of Texas. At one point, Ms. Miers was Mr. Bush’s personal lawyer.
In 1995, Mr. Bush, then governor of Texas, named her chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission and gave her the task of cleaning up that scandal-plagued agency. Ms. Miers has never been a judge, although that is not a requirement for a Supreme Court justice.
Ms. Miers was also a leader in the search that led Mr. Bush to Judge John G. Roberts Jr., who is widely expected to be confirmed by the Senate as chief justice on Thursday.
Republicans cautioned that Ms. Miers was just one in a swirling mix of perhaps 12 possibilities and that she could be the subject of the same kind of assumptions that led much of Washington to conclude in July that Judge Edith Brown Clement of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit was Mr. Bush’s choice for the court only hours before he named Judge Roberts.
Co-Managing Partner of Locke Liddell & Sapp LLP, has previously served as President and director of the State Bar of Texas as well as President and Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Dallas Bar Association. She is currently a member of the House of Delegates for the American Bar Association and State Delegate for the State of Texas. Ms. Miers also serves as a Trustee of the Southwestern Legal Foundation, a member of the Executive Board for the Southern Methodist University School of Law and Chair of the Texas Lottery Commission.
Stay Tuned…… Justice Roberts has now a majority of votes in the Senate and is confirmed!
Update #1
On Wednesday, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, and Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, sent Mr. Bush a letter urging him not to name to the court any of the three judges who were part of the compromise – Judge William J. Pryor Jr. and Judges Owen and Brown.
“The nomination of any of these individuals to the Supreme Court would represent an unnecessary provocation and would be met by substantial opposition in the Senate,” the letter said.
So………
Don’t tell a Texan what to do……..