Questionable Nominee

President George W Bush wanted a woman to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and he found one just down the hall from his Oval Office: White House Counsel Harriet Miers. A 1970 graduate of the Southern Methodist University School of Law, Miss Miers has worked for Bush in Texas and Washington since 1997. Before that she served on the Dallas City Council and practiced law at a large Dallas firm.

Nothing in her record indicates the kind of experience or ability required to be a productive member of the US Supreme Court. Unlike judges, whose opinions and rulings are published, her memos to the President are rightly shielded from public scrutiny by executive privilege. Her predecessors as White Counsel, such as John Ehrlichman, John Dean, Fred Buzhardt, Leonard Garment, C Boyden Gray and Bernard Nussbaum were never considered Supreme Court material. How should Senators determine if she is knowledgeable enough about Consitutional law to serve on the nation's highest court?

I would suggest that Senators use the confirmation hearings to test her knowledge about important Constitutional provisions and landmark Supreme Court decisions. Here is a sample ten-question quiz that anyone qualified to serve on the Supreme Court could answer easily ( without lifelines.) The correct responses are shown in the Footnotes below. If Harriet Myers gets eight or more right, go ahead and confirm her. If not, both she and the President will be so embarrassed that the nomination will be withdrawn. Before checking the Footnotes, why not take the test yourself-----after all, you might know as much Constitutional law as the nominee!

The Glazerbeam Quiz for Supreme Court Justice

1. The votes of how many Senators are needed to expel a Senator?

2. What provision of the Consitution gives Congress the right to set a federal minimum hourly-wage?

3. The Constitution allows Congress to "grant letters of marque" (Article I, Section 8, Par. 11). What does this mean?

4. Give an example of a case in which the US Supreme Court would have original jurisdiction.

5. If a state would prohibit Muslim girls (specifically) from wearing headscarves in public school, what Constitutional provision would be violated?

6. What Constitutional provision permits a federal income tax?

7. What legal principle did the Supreme Court declare in the case Marbury vs Madison?

8. What right did the Court assert in Gideon vs Wainwright?

9. What did the Court rule in Plessy vs Ferguson, and what is the status of that decision today?

10. What did the Court rule in New York Times vs the United States?

Send this quiz to your senators and urge them to ask these or similar questions of the nominee before voting on confirmation.
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Answers

1. Two thirds, or 67 of the 100 Senators (Art. I, Section 5, Par. 2)

2. The Interstate Commerce Clause (Art. I, Section 8, Par. 3)

3. The right granted to a private citizen to attack enemy ships.

4. Cases involving ambassadors and "other public ministers and consuls." (Art. III, Section 2, Par. 2)

5. " Nor shall any state ....deny any person.... the equal protection of the laws." (Amendment XIV, Section 1)

6. Amendment XVI.

7. The power of the Supreme Court to declare federal laws unconstitutional.

8. If a defendant in a state felony case cannot afford a lawyer, the state must provide one.

9. The Court held that "separate but equal" public facilities did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment, but the 1954 decision on school segregation ( Brown vs Board of Education) reversed this ruling.

10. That the government could not prevent the NY Times from publishing the Pentagon Papers, a history of the Vietnam War intended for internal use only.