Miers foes see law questions as way to derail nomination
Groups aim to make her seem unqualified
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | October 12, 2005
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/10/12/miers_foes_see_law_questions_as_way_to_derail_nomination/WASHINGTON -- Some of the advocacy groups that are concerned about Supreme Court nominee Harriet E. Miers's lack of a record on social issues are favoring a new approach to thwarting her nomination: Asking the nominee, who has no judicial experience, complex questions about constitutional law and hoping she trips up.
Groups are circulating lists of questions they want members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to ask Miers at her confirmation hearings. The activists' thinly veiled hope is that Miers will reveal ignorance of the law and give senators a reason to oppose her.
''We are trying to establish that there are thousands of questions that law students routinely deal with . . . and if she can't get to that level, it doesn't matter if you're for the left or the right, at that point it's a fait accompli that she is not fit for the office," said Eugene DelGaudio, president of Public Advocate, a conservative profamily group.
The groups oppose Miers because her scant record offers them insufficient proof that she would be a staunch conservative. But, mindful that judicial nominees resist talking about ideology, they believe that a better strategy is to make her appear unqualified. Miers's supporters counter that she will demonstrate that she is well versed in broad issues of constitutional law. They said that trying to catch her with arcane questions would be inappropriate, and may elicit sympathy for her.