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National Right to Life Committee Statement on Harriet
Miers
WASHINGTON (October 4, 2005) -- The following statement can be
attributed to David N. O'Steen, executive director of the National Right to
Life Committee (NRLC):
"President Bush has an excellent record of appointing judges who
recognize the proper role of the courts, which is to interpret the law
according to its actual text, and not to legislate from the bench. We
believe that Harriet Miers is another nominee who will abide by the text and
history of the Constitution."
BACKGROUND ON HARRIET MIERS
According to published reports, Harriet Miers has been active since
about 1980 in the Valley View Christian Church in Dallas.
The Dallas Morning News reported on October 4, 2005, "Ron Key,
who has been Miers' pastor since the early 1980s, said his church is
anti-abortion."
According to
material posted this week on the Internet by Marvin Olasky (editor
of World magazine), Nathan Hecht, a Republican member of the Texas
Supreme Court, is an elder at the same church, and has been a close friend
of Miers for decades. Hecht told Olasky "her personal views are consistent
with that of evangelical Christians."
Hecht also said that he and Miers "went to two or three prolife dinners
in the late 80s or early 90s."
In 1989, according to various press accounts, Miers donated $150 to
Texans United for Life, a Dallas-based pro-life group, and she was listed as
a "bronze patron" in the group's dinner program.
On October 4, 2005, the Dallas Morning News published a story
based on an interview with Lorlee Bartos, who was Miers' campaign manager in
1989 when Miers ran, successfully, for an at-large seat on the Dallas City
Council. The story reported that the two women discussed abortion once
during that period, and quotes Bartos as saying, "She is on the extreme end
of the anti-choice movement," and, "I think Harriet's belief was pretty
strongly felt. I suspect she is of the same cloth as the president."
In 1993, when Miers was the president of the Texas State Bar, she helped
lead an unsuccessful effort to rescind a pro-abortion stance taken by the
American Bar Association in favor of a neutral position. Leonard Leo,
executive vice president of the conservative Federalist Society, said, "The
ABA is a place where there was an awful lot of liberal activism, so it took
some courage for a woman to take the position she did." On October 4, 2005,
the New York Times ran a story about Miers' role in the ABA fight, under the
headline "Miers Was Leader in Effort Within Bar to Rescind Support for
Abortion."
ROE AND THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT
Some commentary on the current nomination incorporates incorrect
information or assumptions about the legal status quo on abortion. On
September 14, 2005, the Los Angeles Times published an eye-opening
examination, written by its veteran Supreme Court reporter, on the true
scope of the "right to abortion" created by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade
and more recent rulings, which are still often badly misunderstood. (It is
here.) The article also summarizes documents that reveal the
internal processes at the Supreme Court that produced Roe v. Wade in 1973.
Among currently sitting Supreme Court justices, six (including Sandra
Day O'Connor) have voted in favor of Roe v. Wade -- that is, in support of
the doctrine that abortion must be allowed for any reason until "viability"
(about five and one-half months), and for "health" reasons (broadly defined)
even during the final three months of pregnancy. Two justices (Antonin
Scalia and Clarence Thomas) have voted to overturn Roe, and one (John
Roberts) has not voted on the matter.
A refutation of the myth that the Supreme Court has been divided 5 to 4
on Roe v. Wade, issued by the Annenberg Center's FactCheck.org, is posted
here:
http://www.factcheck.org/article176.html
However, regarding the permissibility of a meaningful ban on
partial-birth abortion, the current Court is split 5-3 in favor of
partial-birth abortion (not counting Chief Justice Roberts, who has not
voted on the issue). In 2000, Justice O'Connor voted to say that Roe v.
Wade prevented bans on partial-birth abortion. (Stenberg v. Carhart, 2000)
On September 23, the Bush Administration's Solicitor General asked the
Supreme Court to accept for review, this term, a lower-court ruling that
struck down the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. The Solicitor
General's petition is posted
here.
On November 30, 2005, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in
Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, a case which will
determine whether states can continue to require that a parent be notified
before an abortion is performed on a minor daughter. Some observers believe
that the case may be decided on a 5-4 vote, one way or the other.
National Right to Life is the nation's largest pro-life organization,
with 50 state affiliates and approximately 3,000 local affiliates
nationwide. NRLC works through legislation and education to protect those
threatened by abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and assisted suicide.
For more information
Kim Lehman
Kim@IRLC.org
515-244-1012
Iowa Right to Life Committee 1500 Illinois Street Des Moines, IA 50314
www.IRLC.org
Prosecutor reveals third grand jury had refused
DeLay indictment
DRUDGEREPORT.com has a link to this latest Tome DeLay indictment newsflash:
Travis County grand jury last week refused to indict former U.S. House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay as prosecutors raced to salvage their felony case
against the Sugar Land Republican.
In a written statement Tuesday, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle
acknowledged that prosecutors presented their case to three grand juries —
not just the two they had discussed — and one grand jury refused to indict
DeLay. When questions arose about whether the state's conspiracy statute
applied to the first indictment returned last Wednesday, prosecutors
presented a new money-laundering charge to second grand jury on Friday
because the term of the initial grand jury had expired.
Read the full article here: [LINK]
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