A questionnaire filled out by Harriet Miers sixteen years ago show that her political approach to abortion supported the typical conservative position of opposition in most cases. The questionnaire, which Miers voluntarily provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee, came from a pro-life group in Texas interested in her run for the Dallas City Council:

Harriet E. Miers, the Supreme Court nominee, disclosed on Tuesday a 1989 survey in which she supported banning abortion except to protect the life of the pregnant woman. The disclosure alarmed abortion rights supporters but failed to assuage the concerns of some conservative Republicans. ...

The 1989 survey, which Ms. Miers filled out for the anti-abortion group Texans United for Life when she was a candidate for the Dallas City Council, constituted the clearest indication yet of her personal views on abortion. It did not ask whether she believed that the Constitution protected a right to abortion.

"If Congress passes a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution that would prohibit abortion except when it was necessary to prohibit the death of the mother, would you actively support its ratification by the Texas Legislature?" the survey asked.

Ms. Miers answered yes. She told the group she would support a state ban on abortion, oppose public financing for abortions, participate in "pro-life" events and use her "influence as an elected official" to "promote the pro-life cause."

This shouldn't surprise anyone, nor should it unduly alarm anyone either. First of all, it's sixteen years old, and it represents Miers' state of mind from quite a while ago. The chances of it representing her current state of mind is good -- after all, Miers continues to work for George Bush -- but her opinion may well have moderated from this position. Even Ted Kennedy once publicly claimed to oppose abortion as public policy, although he did so thirty-five years ago, pre-Roe.

More to the point, it represents a political position from someone running for office, not necessarily a statement of judicial intent. One can oppose abortion and yet decide not to overturn judicial precedent through an overriding concern over stare decisis, just as one can believe that women should have access to abortion and yet vote to overturn Roe based on the judgment that the Supreme Court decided the case in error. The questionnaire only provides another small piece of the Miers puzzle, one that hardly shocks anyone considering the nature of her mentor, President Bush.

As a result, we know more about Miers' politics, but not much more about her potential judicial temperament or philosophy. Other parts of the questionnaire given to her by the Senate addressed this. She responded by claiming respect for stare decisis, but with considerably less enthusiasm than John Roberts did in his testimony to the committee. The most interesting application of this came in her testimony that she reconsidered her original decision not to allow her name to come up as a potential replacement for O'Connor when the resignation first became known to the White House. She didn't explain why she overruled her own personal stare decisis to put her name back in contention after the death of William Rehnquist, but the Judiciary Committee will certainly want to know why.

Will the abortion question help her win approval with conservatives? Probably, even after the shock of the Bork broadside this morning. The fear among some who objected to her nomination was that she would be a "squish" on abortion, but it was unlikely that Bush would have selected someone with that viewpoint. The question will be whether she has the constitutional erudition to dismantle a precedent like Roe, if she is even so inclined to do so. We'll find out in the hearings.

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» Miers Backed Ban on Abortion in 1989 Campaign from Stop The ACLU
Via NY Times WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - Harriet E. Miers, the Supreme Court nominee, disclosed on Tuesday a 1989 survey in which she supported banning abortion except to protect the life of the pregnant woman. The disclosure alarmed abortion rights suppor... [Read More]

Tracked on October 19, 2005 8:45 AM

» Harriet Miers on Abortion from ProLifeBlogs
A New York Times article reports on the recently disclosed 1989 survey in which Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers stated she supported a constitutional amendment that would protect the life of the unborn. [more here, HT: StoptheACLU] The survey asked... [Read More]

Tracked on October 19, 2005 1:00 PM

» Harriet Miers on Abortion from ProLifeBlogs
A New York Times article reports on the recently disclosed 1989 survey in which Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers stated she supported a constitutional amendment that would protect the life of the unborn. [more here, HT: StoptheACLU] The survey asked... [Read More]

Tracked on October 19, 2005 1:00 PM

» The Odds on Miers from Occasional Outbursts
On the Hill, Harriet Miers pools are all the rage. It reminds me of the The Zero Game, a great novel by Brad Meltzer about staffers betting on the outcome of legislation. Time magazine this week has an article about predictive decision markets. T... [Read More]

Tracked on October 19, 2005 7:26 PM

» Charlie Foxtrot from NIF
Today's dose of NIF - News, Interesting & Funny ... It's Stop the ACLU Thursday! [Read More]

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