Miers Coming Into Focus

An item making the rounds today in Senators Assail Miers's Replies, Ask For Details by Charles Babington and Michael Fletcher:

Meanwhile, several constitutional law scholars said they were surprised and puzzled by Miers's response to the committee's request for information on cases she has handled dealing with constitutional issues. In describing one matter on the Dallas City Council, Miers referred to "the proportional representation requirement of the Equal Protection Clause" as it relates to the Voting Rights Act.

"There is no proportional representation requirement in the Equal Protection Clause," said Cass R. Sunstein, a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago. He and several other scholars said it appeared that Miers was confusing proportional representation -- which typically deals with ethnic groups having members on elected bodies -- with the one-man, one-vote Supreme Court ruling that requires, for example, legislative districts to have equal populations.

There are at least three possibilities. One, this was a slip of the pen, not reassuring in a nominee one of whose qualities is supposed to be an attention to detail. Another is that she actually believes there is such a requirement for proportional representation.

The third is that she hadn't thought about it much but her own general notion of social equality vaguely smuggled itself into her answer. Which is too bad, because from the little evidence available, Miers' outlook is conventionally liberal on race and gender.

I don't have a link, but one of the networks quoted Miers in a speech talking about the need to correct the problem of women being paid less than men. This is one of the stock canards of the left, unequal pay being almost completely attributable to personal choice and the inevitable slowdown in career advancement when women take time off to bear children.  Combine that with her support of affirmative action, and it is not much of a leap to assume there's an equal representation requirement in the U.S. Constitution because, you know, there should be.

Comments

[mike]

no one cares. have the damn hearing. vote.
shut up.