Specter: Miers expressed belief in constitutional right to privacy

[Algorem]

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/politics/12926656.htm

BY STEVEN THOMMA AND JAMES KUHNHENN

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers told the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday that she believes there's a right to privacy in the Constitution, a basic underpinning of the Supreme Court's landmark abortion ruling Roe v. Wade.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the panel chairman, said that during a nearly two-hour private meeting Monday, Miers also told him that she believed the court had properly decided a precedent-setting 1965 privacy case, Griswold v. Connecticut, which established the legal foundation that led to Roe v. Wade.

Miers also assured a Senate Democrat on Monday that she's never told anyone how she would rule on abortion rights.

"Nobody knows how I would rule on Roe v. Wade," Miers said, according to Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee...

[rodeodance]

1. careful--the WH is remaking her.

[Charlie Brown]

2. There goes Miers n/t

[valerief]

3. She may believe in a constitutional right to privacy, but

I'll dimes to donuts she doesn't believe in a gynecological right to privacy.

[DaveColorado]

5. Hmm

Didn't Thomas say the same?

I was too young then to follow his confirmation hearing.

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. She believes what Pinhead** tells her to believe. nt

[hippiechick]

4. Heard on NPR .... 2 former colleagues

... now sitting on the Texas bench, when asked if she'd vote to overturn Roe ... the first said 'I believe so' ... the second paused for a moment and added 'I concur'.

'Best person for the job', my ass.

[DaveColorado]

7. Well the GOP has two options from their POV

Keep Roe hanging by a thread (but gut it), or overturn it completely.

If they keep it hanging by a thread, then they can still use it as a wedge issue to woo the fundies.

If they overturn it completely, they may be signing their own death warrant because the American public is not on their side.

I would support neither of these options, but I'm trying to see it from their POV.

[tritsofme]

6. Griswold at its face IIRC only protects a right to privacy in marriage

I don't think its very controversial anymore.

I can instances where Roe would be overturned and that could still be consistent with Griswold.

Once again, this little tidbit from Specter tells us a whole lot of nothing.

[Divernan]

9. Supreme Court has to choose between competing constitutional rights

in complex cases. That is why only really bright judges who are also learned constitutional scholars should be appointed to the Court. That is exactly the kind of case which the Court will hear. So it is extremely easy for any Justice to rule that although they have the greatest respect for Right A, in the situation where it conflicts with Right B, B wins. It's like Scissors-Paper-Rock. In Miers' case, her respect for her religion's version of the right to life will always trump the right to privacy.

[Erika]

10. If Republicans do away with freedom of choice

they will disappear for decades.

[Demeter]

12. I Fail to See any Competing Constitutional Right

that conflicts with privacy and self-determination. Lincoln freed the slaves, so there is no requirement for women to unwillingly produce cannon fodder and corporate consumers.

[Divernan]

24. While I personally agree w/you, Justices Scalia & Thomas don't

It's the old life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness and whether a fetus has rights or not. The Constitution has always been subject to conflicting interpretations. And under anyone's interpretations, there are times when one right trumps another right. For example there are agreed to boundaries to free speech. You can't shout "Fire" in a crowded theater just for the excitement of it, when there is no fire. You can't exercise free speech to urge others to commit crimes.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Miers says she made no promises on abortion

Posted 10/17/2005 10:39 PM Updated 10/17/2005 10:46 PM

Miers says she made no promises on abortion
By Andrea Stone, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers told a key Senate Democrat on Monday that she had not promised anyone that she would oppose abortion rights if she is confirmed to the nation's highest court.
After a private meeting with Miers, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said she had told him that "no one knows how I would rule" on cases involving abortion. That issue is likely to headline Miers' upcoming Senate confirmation hearings because Miers would replace Sandra Day O'Connor, one of six justices on the nine-member court who has backed abortion rights.

Schumer added that he was unable to squeeze much information from Miers, who is the White House counsel, about her legal views. Schumer said that he was particularly "surprised" that she declined to discuss a ruling in 1923 that helped to establish the concept of personal privacy, the legal foundation for abortion rights.
(snip)

Miers' trip to Capitol Hill on Monday came hours after an op-ed column in The Wall Street Journal suggested that on Oct. 3, the day Miers was nominated, two Texas judges who are friends of hers told several conservative Christian leaders during a conference call that Miers probably would vote to oppose abortion rights if she were confirmed.
(snip/...)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-10-17-miers-abortion_x.htm

[depakid]

13. No way to overrule Roe without taking down Griswold

unless she's planning on legislating from the Bench....

[BlueIris]

14. Right. If Miers believes in privacy, I believe there was one gunman.

Goddamn. I was reserving judgment about Specter. Now, not so much.

[sabra]

15. Miers told Democrat her views on abortion have remained private

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/tuesday/news_3445e9cd934e01ad0045.html

Miers told Democrat her views on abortion have remained private
As Texas justices show support for Miers' Supreme Court nomination, two claimed she said she would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's effort to shift the discussion of Harriet Miers' Supreme Court nomination toward her résumé and away from her views on abortion ran headlong Monday into a report that two of her friends had assured conservatives that she would vote to overturn the landmark ruling legalizing abortion.

Much of the criticism of her nomination among Bush's conservative allies centers on her lack of a track record in opposing abortion rights.

The White House distanced itself from an Oct. 3 conference call that The Wall Street Journal said involved conservative leaders and Miers' friends: federal Judge Ed Kinkeade of Dallas and Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht.

...

Miers on Monday told Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., that the report was baseless.
"She disavowed that completely," Schumer said after meeting with Miers for an hour. "She said, 'Nobody knows my views on Roe v. Wade; nobody can speak for me on Roe v. Wade.' "

[mac56]

16. And Schumer expects her to come clean on this?!

Whad'dya expect them to say? They're LIARS.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

17. No, but they're going to subpoena Dobson.

And they're going to find out who assured him and where that person got the information from. And then we're going to show people they're liars.

[mzteris]

18. so the Texas Judges lied?

Nathan Hecht and some other Texas judge - old friends of hers - said THEY had talked about it with her and pretty much guaranteed she'd overturn it.

It was on DU yesterday.

[Dhalgren]

19. They should be hauled in front of congress and made to spill...

[gratuitous]

20. So, who are you going to believe -- the judges or the nominee?

Sounds to me like a couple of witnesses from Texas need to be subpoenaed. I wonder if any of the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee will be sufficiently curious to sort this matter out? Or will it simply be enough for Miss Miers to lie her ass off, as usual?

[Zynx]

21. Somebody is lying.

Time to find out who.

[ruggerson]

22. This nomination should be dead

If anyone in their right mind believes that Miers, never once, in her twenty year plus friendship with Hecht mentioned her views on abortion, then they should get their head examined.

This woman is a liar. None of these people have the courage of their convictions - they know if they come out and say they are anti-Roe V Wade that they will not get confirmed.

So they try to hide their views and do an end run around the MAJORITY of this nation's voters.

Why do we stand for this deceit? Why do we let them play this game?

[Hobarticus]

23. Cat's outta the bag, Harriet. 'Fess up.

Someone's fibbin'.