Rolling the Dice

By Jeremy C.

President Bush has nominated Harriet Miers to fill the vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. This nomination has clearly sparked a lot of controversy. Many of the people opposing Mires are conservatives. Their opposition to Miers is a direct result to the fact that she is a stealth nominee. We know very little about her and we are having difficulty finding out details about her. Conservatives such as myself, would like to know how she views the U.S. Constitution, and how she would interpreted it as a justice on the Supreme Court. It is clear; we are rolling the dice with this nomination.

Will Miers be a strict constructionist and interpret the Constitution the way those who wrote it intended it to be interpreted, or will she be an activist and manipulate the constitution to support her own personal policy preferences. For example, Roe v. Wade would be an example of judicial activism. Somehow the Supreme Court managed to find a right to an abortion in the Constitution, which clearly does not exist. And liberals have been hailing this ruling and would like it to never be overturned.

If liberals want a right to an abortion written into the constitution, they need to get their guys elected and add the abortion rights Amendment to the Constitution. But thankfully they are having difficulty winning elections lately.

Getting back to Harriet Miers, it is important—if confirmed—that she turns out to be a strict constructionist and not an activist. Liberals are currently screaming that we need “balance on the court”. So, that would mean that we should have four liberals, four conservatives and a moderate on the court to create a balance. This thinking is absolutely wrong. The use of the words liberal, conservative, and moderate should not be used to label Supreme Court justices. The labels that we should be using are strict constructionist and activist. What we need on the Supreme Court are nine strict constructionists that will not create law and will respect existing Constitutional law.

Liberals would like to see activists appointed to the Supreme Court. They are having difficulty winning within the arena of ideas and are also having difficulty winning elections. Therefore, the only way that liberals can force liberalism on America is to use the courts. Liberals believe that the U.S. Constitution is outdated, and it needs to be manipulated to fit into current times. It is extremely important that activists that will not respect constitutional law not be permitted to serve on the Supreme Court.

There are a lot of issues that could come before the Supreme Court in the near future, such as; abortion, same-sex marriage, religious freedoms, property rights, etc. And Miers could be the deciding vote on these issues. We can never know for sure how a justice will interpret the Constitution until they serve on the court for awhile. But to maximize the chance that the justice will be a strict constructionist is to nominate people that have a history of holding these views. Harriet Miers is a stealth nominee, which means we basically know nothing about her. This fact is very unsettling because we have been let down before by stealth nominees.

It is important to remember that George Bush was re-elected as president, therefore he is the one that gets to nominate Supreme Court justices. I strongly believe that we need to give Miers a fair chance to testify in the confirmation hearings. CN