Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination for the Supreme Court Wednesday night, but the move did not come as a surprise to a Tufts student and professor.
Miers - the current White House counsel - underwent three and a half weeks of intense scrutiny from liberals and conservatives. She was nominated Oct. 3 by President George W. Bush to fill the spot vacated by Sandra Day O'Connor. The White House announced her withdrawal Thursday morning.
Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle criticized the White House's refusal to turn over documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Miers' legal advice to Bush, and conservative figures outside the government questioned Miers' stance on abortion and school prayer.
"There was much made of the fact that it violated executive privilege to have documents given to the Senate committee," said Political Science Professor Marilyn Glater, who specializes in constitutional law. "But I think that was a nice spin on it to make people think that was the problem."
According to Glater, there were other problems with the nomination of Miers, who had never been a judge but led the Texas Bar Association.
"There was too much dissent from Republicans and Democrats, and people were accurate in their concern about not being able to judge her quality," Glater said. "It wasn't just the information - what there was didn't look very good. She didn't look very good as an intellect for the Supreme Court."
Tufts Republicans President Doug Kingman, a junior, said the White House accepted that Miers' nomination would not succeed. "Personally, I think she realized she wasn't sure if the country would support her," he said.
Glater said she did not know who Bush would nominate next. The well-received nomination of Ben Bernanke to replace Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve Chairman may encourage Bush to risk a political fight and pick someone who would satisfy conservative Christians, she said.
Bush "would appoint somebody with impeccable credentials ... someone at least as conservative as Roberts," referring to new Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, Glater said.
Kingman said he expected Bush to nominate someone who would please the two conservative camps by sticking to the Constitution's words, not its intent. "I look forward to a strict constructionalist," he said.
After Miers' failure to secure the support of Congressional Republicans or conservative Christian leaders, her withdrawal was certain, Glater said. "I made a bet with one of my colleagues that it would happen," she said.
