White House Counsel Miers Chosen for Court

While Miers is a churchgoer who once made a small contribution to an antiabortion organization, some conservative activists were openly questioning whether Bush had lived up to his promise to appoint a nominee of the same judicial and ideological stripe as justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. The skeptics questioned her past donations to the Democratic National Committee, to former Texas senator Lloyd M. Bentsen (D) and the 1988 presidential campaign of Al Gore (D). They also bemoaned her lack of judicial experience.

"The reaction of many conservatives today will be that the president has made possibly the most unqualified choice since Abe Fortas, who had been the president's lawyer," said Manuel Miranda, chairman of the Third Branch Conference. "The nomination of a nominee with no judicial record is a significant failure for the advisers that the White House gathered around it. However, the president deserves the benefit of a doubt, the nominee deserves the benefit of hearings, and every nominee deserves an up-or-down vote."

Amid so much uncertainty among the president's own allies, Vice President Cheney was dispatched to interviews with such conservative commentators as Rush Limbaugh, who made plain his skepticism. "I'm confident that she has a conservative judicial philosophy that you'd be comfortable with, Rush," Cheney said. He added: "This president will have done more to change the court and, in fact, put on it individuals who share his judicial philosophy than any of his predecessors in modern times."

The White House could take reassurance that no Republican senators came out against Miers, and some conservative advocates said they were confident she would be a reliable supporter on the bench. They cited her support of an unsuccessful effort to reverse an American Bar Association endorsement of Roe v. Wade , the Supreme Court decision guaranteeing the right to abortion. "I don't know what her view is on overturning Roe , but she is well regarded by many antiabortion Texans," said Leonard A. Leo of the Federalist Society.

In a short statement after Bush announced her nomination and before she made her first round of courtesy calls on Senate leaders, Miers indicated that she has a modest view of the duty of justices. "It is the responsibility of every generation to be true to the Founders' vision of the proper role of the courts in our society," Miers said. "If confirmed, I recognize that I will have a tremendous responsibility to keep our judicial system strong, and to help ensure that the courts meet their obligations to strictly apply the laws and the Constitution."

If confirmed, Miers will become the first Supreme Court justice in more than three decades with no experience as a judge at any level. Among the non-judges appointed in modern history are the late William H. Rehnquist, who was a top Justice Department official in the Nixon administration, and Fortas, an influential Washington lawyer and close adviser to Lyndon B. Johnson, who nominated him to the high court in 1965. The talking points of White House aides said the closest analogy was Lewis F. Powell Jr., who served as head of the Virginia Bar Association and the Richmond school board before being sent to the court by Richard M. Nixon.

Bush chose Miers after seriously considering as many as 15 candidates for the post, at least six of whom were women, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan. He said Bush met with Miers four times, starting Sept. 21, to discuss her possible nomination. Bush formally offered Miers the job Sunday night during dinner in the White House residence with first lady Laura Bush.

Miers, who as White House counsel was part of the team that vetted potential court nominees, was not publicly mentioned as a potential candidate until last week, and most speculation had centered on younger contenders, as well as the prospect that Bush would want to name the first Hispanic to the Supreme Court. But, in a signature of his management style, Bush turned to an adviser in whom he felt personal trust.

Through a spokesman, Majority Leader Bill Frist (D-Tenn.) said he would like to have Miers's confirmation hearings start in time for a vote before the Senate leaves for its Thanksgiving recess. Senate Democrats, however, were calling for a thorough examination of her views and for a release of her records as White House counsel -- a request sure to cause a confrontation with the White House.

"The record we have so far is simply insufficient to assess the qualifications of this nominee," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass).

Staff writer David S. Broder contributed to this report.