Did President Bush pick Harriet Miers for all the wrong reasons? The White House has been quietly touting Miers’s religious background for the apparent purpose of signaling her position on the abortion debate. But if that’s the sole reason she was chosen, then her Supreme Court nomination might be even worse than I originally feared.
Abortion-rights advocates argue in favor of Roe v. Wade, not because it was based on sound judicial reasoning, but because it resulted in an outcome they favor. If Miers would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade because of personal beliefs—as opposed to reasons of law—then she might be casting a sensible legal vote, but she would be doing so for all the wrong reasons.
Conservatives tend to favor justices whose philosophy is to interpret the Constitution as written, not as they would like it to be personally or as Europeans might want. Conservatives recognize that this philosophy would restrict the unlimited growth of government and would preserve individual rights in the way that the Founders intended. In my mind, having the correct judicial philosophy is far more important than casting one or two votes any particular direction, especially when those votes are cast for political reasons.
Despite what the abortion debaters say, overturning Roe v. Wade would have a relatively limited effect. In many states, abortion would still be legal, in some, it would be more restricted, and in a few, it could be outlawed. Sure, a post-Roe world would be different, but it wouldn’t be so vastly different that anti-abortion conservatives should sell out all their other beliefs to secure it.
I’ve got a bad feeling about Miers. If she gets on the court, she could be issuing decisions decades from now that would make Constitutional conservatives cringle. Long after George W. Bush has left the White House, conservatives could be cursing his name. Is President Bush willing to risk leaving that legacy by putting Miers on the Supreme Court? We already know the answer, and this is one of those instances where the president’s legendary steadfastness runs the risk of driving a permanent wedge between himself and many of the people who voted for him. Luckily for President Bush, he doesn’t have to run again.
