Bush is set to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to replace Justice O’Connor this morning. Miers has never been a judge but was the first woman to be President of the Texas Bar Association.
The State Of . . . The Federal Bar is suffering. While in law school we debated how the quantity and quality of federal judges were beginning to lag. We theorized this lag was the result of politics, of course. Not enough judges were being approved because of opposition from both Republicans and Democrats. The quality was lagging because both sides were nominating people with little written experience on the bench so as to either not offend the other side or sneak in a candidate whose views they knew would be opposed.
Miers has never been a judge. This is not to say that she will not be a good Justice–that remains to be seen. Granted, even Rehnquist was not a judge before serving as a justice. Rehnquist did, however, clerk for a Supreme Court justice. The trend of putting forth Article III judges who have little experience at judging is a not good. As more and more of today’s cases grow in complexity, we must have judges who are tested and experienced in interpreting the law. We all benefit from having judges that have a wealth of experience as a judge.
But maybe I’m being too serious. What’s the worst that can happen by nominating a person with little experience to a post that will affect the lives of millions of Americans?
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