Chatting about SMU is a mistake and BS. Some folks who are as smart as whips don't get plugged into the credentialist game early in life. Maybe their parents didn't have the money, and maybe this, and maybe that. Her life experience is relevant. Her legal accomplishments or lack thereof are relevant. Her mental ability and knowledge of the Constitution is relevant. She will have a month to cram. We will find out whether she is a quick study or not. We will find out how her minds works. There is no need to rush to judgment.
Finally, the issue as to whether Meirs is judicially conservative enough or not won't matter a hoot. Bush has rather wide discretion on that one, as he should. If she loses a Sessions or Brownbach, she might pick up elsewhere. She will only be in real trouble if she just doesn't seem to have the right stuff as perceived by the Senate as a whole, and the public more generally.
If she seems unfamiliar with the key cases, and the competing arguments that animinate Constitutional debate these days, she will be in real trouble, and should.
Good analysis. Thanks.