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As a Private Lawyer, Miers Left Little for the Public Record [NY Times]
NY Times ^ | October 10, 2005 | JONATHAN D. GLATER

Posted on 10/10/2005 3:33:03 AM PDT by Pharmboy

IRVING, Tex., Oct. 7 - Harriet E. Miers, President Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court, spent the bulk of her 30 years in private practice representing clients in relatively mundane business deals and contract disputes. But most cases heard by the court do not grab headlines.

Ms. Miers has come under fire from critics who say she lacks any substantive experience with weighty constitutional issues. But she has plenty of practice with the less provocative legal questions posed in most of the court's cases.

Of the 80 cases before the Supreme Court last term, 25 involved questions directly affecting businesses, according to data collected by Goldstein & Howe, a Washington law firm specializing in Supreme Court litigation. While 33 cases raised questions of constitutional law, 45 involved the interpretation of a law, one involved an interstate dispute and one involved a dispute between a state and the federal government.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: law; miers; supremecourt
Neutral, as far as I can see.
1 posted on 10/10/2005 3:33:05 AM PDT by Pharmboy
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To: Pharmboy
I've asked this before, but didn't get answer. Do ALL Supreme Court Justices need to have expertise in Constitutional Law? In other organizations, a team or a commission usually comprises of people with different expertise. I don't know the composition of the SC today, but IIRC, at the time they're nominated, Roberts's expertise was on constitutional law. I don't know about others. Did anybody else have expertise in business/corporate law?

It's always argued that constitutional law is complex, so it's impossible for someone to learn about it in short time. How about business law, and other 'mundane' laws? Can somebody whose expertise is in Constitutional Law, for instance, grasp the idea in business law fast enough? Or having knowledge in Constitutional Law is like having knowledge in philosophy that can cut across different knowledge?

2 posted on 10/10/2005 3:47:57 AM PDT by paudio (Four More Years..... Let's Use Them Wisely...)
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To: Pharmboy

b


3 posted on 10/10/2005 4:35:43 AM PDT by MoralSense
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To: paudio
Do ALL Supreme Court Justices need to have expertise in Constitutional Law?

No, but it does help.

4 posted on 10/10/2005 4:36:50 AM PDT by Do not dub me shapka broham ("We don't want a Supreme Court justice just like George W. Bush. We can do better.")
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To: paudio
We already have the liberals on the court who can't tell the difference between the US Constitution and Das Kapital.

On one of the talking head shows over the weekend, some Senator was saying that Constitutional law is a very complex issue. Huh? The only thing which makes it complex is all of the hoops leftists have jumped through to make the unconstitutional constitutional and the constitutional unconstitutional.

A first year law school student (or an average Freeper) can understand article I section 8 listing the powers Congress has along with the 10th amendment which says all powers not delegated to the United States are held by the states or the people. It takes many years of study to make those parts of the Constitution unclear.

5 posted on 10/10/2005 6:29:19 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (We were promised someone in the Scalia/Thomas mold. Maybe next time.)
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