We may not know much about Harriet Miers’ ideological leanings or how she will interpret our nation’s most sacred document, but we know she was a Mustang and that is good for democracy.
That’s right kids; President Bush’s newest nominee for the Supreme Court is an SMU alum. In fact, she liked the Hilltop so much, that she spent an extra three years here, getting her JD from our fine law school.
Miers’ nomination is fairly extraordinary on several levels. If confirmed, she will be the third woman in history to sit on the Supreme Court. So at the very least, Ginsberg will have someone to go shopping with (what do they wear under those robes anyway?).
Activists on both sides of the political playing field have been skeptical of Miers, because she has never served as a judge during her career, but it’s worth noting that the late great William Rehnquist had never judged a case in his life before being confirmed as an associate justice and eventually moved up the ranks to chief.
Besides, there aren’t any minimum requirements for Supreme Court justices. Anyone can be on the Supreme Court, even Ed Board. Now that has a nice ring to it: Chief Justice Ed Board. But that’s just silly, Ed Board is far too busy writing to be plagued by such trivial matters as Constitutional law.
Moderates and liberals are keeping pretty quiet about Miers, it’s hard to find things to get irritated about when you know nothing about this nominee. It’s the really conservative groups who are criticizing her nomination.
The good news for SMU is that if Miers’ nomination is confirmed by the Senate, we’ll have a new name to plaster on the front of some buildings. We can have the Harriet Miers Promenade or the Harriet Miers Parking Garage. In fact, the namesake can continue well beyond the buildings.
How about things currently without famous names precluding the title? Students can eat the new Miers Meatball sandwich at Subway. The Giddy-Up could be switched to the Miers-Mobile. We could dedicate a week to the former Mustang should she be confirmed by the U.S. Senate-Miers Mania.
No matter what the result, Ed Board is happy to see an SMU alumna making waves other than those of Kathy Bates in “Titanic.”
