Little Wolf's World

I have been thinking about the Harriet Miers nomination since it was first announced almost 3 weeks ago.  I have yet to form a firm opinion on this nominee, but I have some concerns.

First off, at least on the surface, she doesn’t appear to have the qualifications to be a viable candidate for the Supreme Court.  I don’t say this because she doesn’t have any judicial experience; I say this because she has no Constitutional background, or at least none that has been exposed to date.  The little information that is dribbling out, at least in my opinion, seems to make her nomination a nod to the absurd.  See had forgotten to pay her DC Bar dues until she got the notice that her ability to practice law had been suspended in DC.  What kind of top lawyer forgets to keep their license current.

Okay let’s move on.

As the title indicates I’ve got some questions.  More specifically I have some questions that I think should be asked when she goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee for her hearings.  The problem is that some of these questions won’t get asked, and if they do she won’t answer them anyway.  The reason she won’t answer them is that she will be advised not to answer any questions definitively, but I suspect she may not be able to answer them at all.

• What is your definition of Judicial Philosophy?


• What is your Judicial Philosophy?


• What do you believe the roll of the Supreme Court is in the governing process?


• Under what circumstances do you believe that a prior court decision should be ignored in deciding a case currently before the court?


• Under what circumstances do you believe that the court should Constitutionally invalidate an act by the Legislature?


• What is your definition of state’s right’s under the Constitution?


• As an example do you believe that the Court overstepped it’s authority in invalidating the California Medical Marijuana statute?


• Do you know what the Quill decision was about?


• If the answer is yes, do you feel that the Quill decision extends to State income/franchise taxes?


• If not, why not?


• If so, why?


• If the answer is no, do you feel that not knowing a major interstate commerce case and its’ effects on states right’s, how do you feel you can adequately do the job of a Justice on the Supreme Court?


• Do you feel that your appointment by President Bush, as you were the head of the Judicial Nominee search committee, was the best option before the President at the time of your nomination?

I doubt many of these exact questions will be asked? The Democrats and Republicans are likely to dance around the issue of Roe v Wade like that case has some kind of divine power to dictate what kind of Justice Ms. Miers will make.

I would really like to know how the President feels that this person was the most qualified for the bench.  I have heard various theories on why she was nominated, I have state previously that I think her nomination is part of a larger plan to get a hard right-wing ‘neocon’ on the Court by putting up a ridiculous nominee that would be a consensus rejection, but also one that if by some miracle got confirmed would be controllable by the ‘neocons’ for a period of time.  This can not be said of anyone else on the Court.