The Best Qualified

I read over Harriet Miers' response to a questionnaire sent to her by the bipartisan members of the Senate Judiciary Committee last night. (I see that her responses have invoked criticism from both Senators Specter and Leahy for being inadequate and incomplete.)

But what really struck me was her response when asked, in question 17 of the questionnaire (page 47-48), to "describe in detail any cases or matters you addressed as an attorney or a public official which involved constitutional questions." This was a question where John Roberts could have written War and Peace in response. But, after vaguely and generally stating that she deals with constitutional questions on a regular basis as White House counsel, the first case that Harriet listed in response was a case where she represented Disney. And what was the constitutional issue?

In that case, like others in which I represented Disney, I argued that, under
the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, there were not sufficient
"minimum contacts" between Disney and Texas to justify forcing the company to
respond to a lawsuit in the Texas courts. I have handled many cases involving
issues of personal jurisdiction under the United States Constitution. For
instance, in Westinghouse Electric Corporation v. Rio Algum Limited, described
in detail in response to question 16, a significant issue was whether the United
States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois had personal
jurisdiction over my client, Pioneer Nuclear, consistent with the Due Process
Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. We argued that Pioneer had insufficient
contacts with Illinois to be subject to personal jurisdiction there, the court
ultimately disagreed.

Personal jurisdiction? That's the primary constitutional question you can cite in support of your constitutional qualifications?

Now, you non-lawyers out there may not understand the significance of this, but personal jurisdiction issues are something that every litigation associate immediately out of law school could deal with. If this is the standard by which we judge people qualified for the Supreme Court, then there are thousands of people joining law firms this year after graduating for law school who should be considered when the next vacancy comes about.
- posted by Joshua @ 5:58 PM