Bush To Tab Miers For High Court
President Bush has chosen his second nominee to the Supreme Court and will announce his pick Monday at the White House, just hours before the court begins a new term with newly sworn-in Chief Justice John Roberts at the helm, administration officials said.
He has chosen White House counsel Harriett Miers for Supreme Court, an administration official tells CBS News Correspondent Mark Knoller. Mr. Bush offered Miers the job Sunday night at dinner in the residence.
The president will announce his choice to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor at 8 a.m. EDT in the Oval Office.
Soon after, the president plans to attend a ceremony at the court at which Roberts, who was confirmed by the Senate 78-22, will formally assumes his leadership post with the opening of its 2005-2006 term. Roberts succeeds the late William H. Rehnquist.
Miers was the first woman president of the Texas State Bar and President Bush's former personal attorney. She moved to the White House with Mr. Bush, became an assistant and staff secretary and then Deputy Chief of Staff, reports CBS News Correspondent Barry Bagnato. When another friend, Alberto Gonzales, was named Attorney General, Miers took his job, White House counsel.
She has never been a judge, and Democrats are sure to pounce on the fact that the president is nominating a woman whose views on key issues are largely unknown.
Other candidates mentioned most frequently in recent days include Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Mr. Bush's longtime friend who would be the first Hispanic on the court; and corporate lawyer Larry Thompson, who was the government's highest ranking black law enforcement official as deputy attorney general during Mr. Bush's first term; conservative federal appeals court judges J. Michael Luttig, Priscilla Owen, Karen Williams, Alice Batchelder and Samuel Alito; Michigan Supreme Court justice Maura Corrigan; and Maureen Mahoney, a well-respected litigator before the high court.
While the confirmation process is under way, says CBS News.com Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen, "O'Connor is going to act like an associate justice until she is replaced. There may be some cases where she sits and hears oral arguments, and maybe even participates in the decision, then isn't on the court when that decision is handed down."
"If that's the case," Cohen explains, O'Connor's "vote will not count. If she's the 'five' in one of those 5-4 votes that she's seem to always be involved in, it would then be a 4-4 tie, and then the court would have to decide what to do then."