Miers says no one knows if she would ban abortion

By Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – White House lawyer Harriet Miers
told a Democratic senator on Monday no one knows how she would
vote on abortion if confirmed to the Supreme Court after a
published report suggested she favored outlawing it.

Emerging from a closed-door meeting with Miers, Sen.
Charles Schumer of New York told reporters that Miers told him
she had not shared her views on the court’s landmark 1973 Roe
v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

“She said, ‘Nobody knows my views on Roe v. Wade,” Schumer
said. “She said, ‘No one can speak for me on Roe v. Wade.”

If confirmed, Miers would replace retiring Justice Sandra
Day O’Connor, a moderate conservative who has been the swing
vote on abortion and other controversial social issues on the
often bitterly divided court.

Her assurance to Schumer, a member of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, which will take up her confirmation, came as she met
with several lawmakers and the White House ramped up its effort
to tout her legal credentials that have been criticized by
conservative Republicans.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania
Republican, also met with Miers and said afterward she told him
“she believes that there is a right to privacy” in the
Constitution, the key underpinning of the Roe v. Wade ruling.

Specter also told reporters Miers told him she considered
as settled law a 1965 Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a
Connecticut law prohibiting the use of contraception by married
couples.

But Specter’s office later issued a statement, saying Miers
called him to say “he misunderstood her and that she had not
taken a position” on the 1965 case or the privacy issue. The
statement by Specter’s office said the senator “accepts Ms.
Miers’s statement that he misunderstood what she said.”

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts recognized the right to
privacy at his Senate confirmation hearing last month, but
refused to say if he would vote to outlaw abortion, saying he
did not want to prejudge cases that may come before him.

President George W. Bush has faced calls to withdraw Miers’
nomination and pick an experienced judge with known
conservative views who could shift the balance of the
nine-member high court firmly to the right.

Bush brought in six former justices of the Texas Supreme
Court on Monday to voice support for Miers and try to get the
focus off her evangelical Christian religion, which the
administration previously brought up in her favor, drawing
broad criticism.

“I think this is an excellent choice by the president of
the United States and I think when people get to know her and
understand her like we do, they’ll find her an excellent
choice,” said former Texas Supreme Court Justice Craig Enoch.

The issue continued to surface, however, with Wall Street
Journal columnist John Fund reporting on Monday that two
current judges, in an October 3 conference call with
conservative religious leaders, said they believed she would
vote to overturn Roe.

Fund cited participants in the call as saying the claim was
made by Nathan Hecht, a Texas Supreme Court justice, and Ed
Kinkeade, a U.S. district judge in Dallas. Both were identified
as longtime friends of Miers, who once practiced law in Texas.

Schumer said the two judges may be called to testify at
Miers’ confirmation hearing. Senate Republicans have proposed
it begin on November 7, with a vote by the full Senate before
the November 24 Thanksgiving Day holiday.

Schumer said the panel may not be ready to begin the
hearing by then.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland)