Miers speeches backed stronger executive branch
WASHINGTON -- Earlier this year, Supreme Court nominee Harriet E. Miers used several speeches to push for expanding President Bush's powers to protect the United States against terrorism, arguing that ''a nation at war" needs a stronger executive branch, according to transcripts the White House has provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In her speeches to conservative groups, Miers called for extension of the Patriot Act, which expands law enforcement agencies' power to investigate suspected terrorists.
She defended Vice President Dick Cheney's closed-door energy task force as the best way for the administration to use confidential deliberations to set national policy. And she said her role as White House counsel was generally to ''protect against any attempted infringement on the appropriate role of the executive branch."
''In order to effectively serve the American people, the president's powers must be protected," Miers said in June, in a speech given to the conservative Heritage Foundation. ''We must recognize that we are a nation at war, and that requires a strong presidency to act as commander-in-chief."
Since her promotion to White House counsel this year, Miers has given speeches arguing policies favored by the Bush position, including tort reform limiting the size of class-action awards and a trust fund for asbestos victims.
She also explained that Bush believes judges should strictly interpret laws and not legislate from the bench and had harsh words for a series of Democratic-led filibusters blocking votes on some of the president's judicial nominees.
''Each nominee is entitled to an up-or-down vote," Miers told the conservative Federalist Society in April, a speech in which she called the group ''an important ally" of the White House. ''Recently, as you know all too well, a minority of senators have used the filibuster to deny certain of President Bush's deserving nominees an up-or-down vote, not because of qualifications, but because that minority disagrees with the judicial philosophy of the nominees."
The speeches, released by the White House yesterday, were the first substantial set of documents that indicate Miers's views and opinions -- something both Republicans and Democrats say they need before forming an opinion.
But the information could heighten Democrats' concerns about how Miers would approach issues involving the separation of powers among the branches of government if she is confirmed. Coupled with opposition from conservatives unsure of her views, the separation of powers issue could shake an already tumultuous nomination, and might cost Miers some Democratic support in a confirmation vote that is likely to be close.
Similar separation-of-power issues were raised during Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.'s confirmation hearings last month, with senators questioning his deference to the executive branch -- including his decision as a federal appellate judge to side with the White House in its use of military tribunals for terrorism suspects.
The Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat, Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, promises to question Miers on the principle of judicial independence.
''Loyalty is an admirable quality, but a justice's loyalty must be to the Constitution and the American people," Leahy said yesterday. ''This is not a Cabinet post in the Bush administration but a lifetime position on our highest court. . . . We will have to determine whether she would have the judicial independence necessary when the Supreme Court considers issues of interest to this administration, and to future administrations."
In addition, Democrats, some of whom have fiercely guarded their right to use Senate rules to prevent votes on objectionable nominees, could react coolly to her position on judicial filibusters. The Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat who has been generally supportive of the Miers nomination in the two weeks since it was announced, is a strong supporter of filibusters.
A White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said that Miers had delivered the speeches in her official capacity as White House counsel, and that they did not necessarily describe her personal views. Perino said they have no bearing on her potential ability as a Supreme Court justice to decide any matter without bias.
''No one should read into that that she couldn't be impartial as a judge when deciding issues relating to the executive branch or any other matter," Perino said.
Even as conservatives decry what they view as Miers' lack of strong conservative credentials, Democrats are questioning whether Miers's long service to Bush would make her beholden to his administration if she became a Supreme Court justice.
Miers was Bush's personal lawyer, and is a longtime ally, dating to his years as governor of Texas.
Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. said yesterday that Bush may have chosen a loyalist like Miers to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor because his administration is distracted by an inquiry into whether his top political adviser, Karl Rove, broke the law by leaking the name of an undercover CIA agent.
''I'm afraid that may be true, but I hope it's not true because it makes it pretty clear that President Bush is not very much in control," Biden, a Delaware Democrat who serves on the Judiciary Committee, told a morning radio talk-show host, Don Imus.
''They talk in the 'Federalist Papers' about cronyism. That's what it looks like. But it's premature. I just don't know anything about her," Biden said.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, met with Miers yesterday. He said he was disappointed because she did not talk about what she had done in the Bush White House, as counsel to the president and in other high-level jobs. The lack of answers could make it difficult for Miers's hearings to begin Nov. 7, as Republicans want, he said. ''There was so little information actually exchanged," Schumer said.
Schumer said Miers did rebut suggestions of some Bush allies that she would vote to overturn the Roe decision. ''No one knows how I would rule on Roe v. Wade," Schumer quoted Miers as saying.
Later in the day, Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter said Miers told him she believes that the Griswold v. Connecticut decision, which expanded the right to privacy to reproductive rights, was properly decided, and that the Constitution does include a right to privacy. But last night, Miers called Specter to say he must have misunderstood their discussion, said a Specter spokesman, William Reynolds.
Miers' speeches also shed more light on her relationship with the president.
In a June speech to White House interns, she lauded Bush for his ''vision, his discipline and relentless dedication, his hard work, and his likability," as well as for ''inner strength" after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Speaking at Pepperdine University's law school commencement in May, Miers told graduates that Bush and first lady Laura Bush ''have inspired me long before he became president."
Material from wire services was used in this report. Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com. 