Miers concerning abortion

Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers said she would support a constitutional amendment to ban abortion, except when necessary to save a mother's life, and would use her influence as an elected official to "promote the pro-life cause," according to a 1989 questionnaire she provided Tuesday to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The revelation is certain to make Miers' personal views on abortion a central issue in confirmation hearings and could plunge the White House into the kind of battle it believed it was avoiding with her nomination. Miers, the longtime Bush adviser and White House counsel, was thought to lack the kind of paper trail of other possible nominees, and because of that there were expectations that her nomination would provoke less of a fight.

But Tuesday's disclosure could produce an unusual alliance of conservatives and liberals against Miers.

Since President Bush announced her nomination two weeks ago to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, conservative lawyers and commentators have been harshly critical, contending Miers lacked the intellectual heft and experience to be the 110th justice in the nation's history. Democrats have largely kept silent, letting conservatives slug it out. But several Democrats and women's groups voiced immediate dismay at Miers' anti-abortion views spelled out in the questionnaire she filled out as she campaigned in 1989 for the Dallas City Council.

The release of the questionnaire came as the White House was seeking to move away from talk about Miers' personal views and repackage her as an accomplished lawyer and adviser who would bring a nonjudge's perspective to the high court. In the days after her nomination, the White House had sought to shore up support from social conservatives by stressing her religious views - a move that only deepened hostility among conservatives troubled by her lack of a judicial record.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who voted against Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.'s nomination because she was unsure about his views on Roe vs. Wade, said Miers' answers "clearly reflect" that she opposes the landmark 1973 decision that guaranteed a woman's right to abortion.

"This raises very serious concerns about her ability to fairly apply the law without bias in this regard," said Feinstein, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It will be my intention to question her very carefully about these issues."

Roberts did not disclose his personal views on abortion. He declined, as had previous Supreme Court nominees, to discuss his views on Roe, because the issue could again come before the court. But the issue of abortion nonetheless dominated his hearings.

With the Miers nomination, the stakes are seemingly higher. She would replace the moderate O'Connor, who has provided the critical fifth vote opposing abortion regulations, including attempts to ban a procedure that opponents call "partial-birth" abortion.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush and others involved in vetting Miers were aware of the general nature of her responses to the questionnaire given to her by Texans United for Life, which she filled out during her successful campaign for the Dallas council seat. But McClellan said White House lawyers had not seen the document until Miers went to Texas last week "to pull together various documents" for a lengthy separate questionnaire from the Judiciary Committee.

In the 1989 document, Miers pledged to oppose abortion and refuse endorsements from groups that support abortion rights. She also said she would vote against "appointment of pro-abortion persons" to city boards or committees that dealt with health issues "to the extent pro-life views are relevant."

Women's groups called Miers' views "draconian" and said they were cause for grave concern. Karen Pearl, interim president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said, "Americans ought to be alarmed."

On Capitol Hill, most Republican senators declined to comment, saying they hadn't seen the 1989 questionnaire. But thus far, her nomination has received a lukewarm response from Republican senators who would ordinarily be predisposed to support Bush's choice for the Supreme Court.

With the GOP holding 55 seats in the Senate, most Republicans said they expected Miers to be confirmed. But they said the confirmation hearings would take on greater significance as senators try to gain a better understanding of the nominee and her views.

"The Miers nomination is a challenge in that people are asking so many questions and the answers aren't there - yet," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who promised that the Senate would act on the nomination by Thanksgiving.

Even those Republican senators who have greeted Miers' nomination with tepid support indicated they still have serious reservations. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said people are nervous because there is so much uncertainty about Miers.

"There's a legitimate concern among those who have really cared about the judiciary that she does not have a sufficient and well-formed philosophy of adjudication," said Sessions, a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Seeking to bolster support for Miers, the White House has coordinated speeches by Texas lawyers and judges on the state's supreme court. Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a Texan, defended her qualifications to a group of law students at George Mason University in Virginia and said he did not believe she would withdraw her nomination, as some conservatives have urged.

Miers offered her most detailed public explanation of her legal views in her Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire, which was also released Tuesday. She outlined a conservative judicial philosophy that courts have a limited role and that judges should exercise "humility" and "self-restraint." Those are principles Roberts explained in his testimony last month.

"Parties should not be able to establish social policy through court action, having failed to persuade the legislative branch or the executive branch of the wisdom and correctness of their preferred course," Miers wrote. "Courts are to be arbiters of disputes, not policy makers."

Miers' responses to the committee's questionnaire also suggest her nomination came about suddenly. She declined to be considered for O'Connor's seat when the justice announced her retirement in late June, and instead "participated in all interviews that ultimately resulted" in Bush's nomination of Roberts. But when Chief Justice William Rehnquist died - and Bush tapped Roberts for that post instead - Miers had a change of heart.

After Rehnquist's death, she participated in discussions about possible nominees for the second vacancy, but, she said, "at some point I understand that individuals at the White House began considering me as a potential nominee without advising me."

She said she spoke with Deputy White House Counsel William Kelley, Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Bush in the two weeks leading up to her nomination. She met with Bush four times, including the day Roberts was sworn in as chief justice in a formal White House ceremony.

Three days later, at a private dinner arranged by Card with Bush and first lady Laura Bush, the president offered Miers the nomination. He announced it the next morning, hours before Roberts took his seat as chief justice for the first time.