The Shifting Supreme Court, Part 3

As more bubbles to the surface about Harriet Miers, it seems that the media is making it known about her religious beliefs and that she had a born-again conversion in her 30's, in the middle of her successful law career. As the [bastion of theological wealth] NY Times reports:

By 1979, Harriet E. Miers, then in her mid-30's, had accomplished what some people take a lifetime to achieve. She was a partner at Locke Purnell Boren Laney & Neely, one of the most prestigious law firms in the South, with an office on the 35th floor of the Republic National Bank Tower in downtown Dallas.

But she still felt something was missing in her life, and it was after a series of long discussions - rambling conversations about family and religion and other matters that typically stretched from early evening into the night - with Nathan L. Hecht, a junior colleague at the law firm, that she made a decision that many of the people around her say changed her life.

"She decided that she wanted faith to be a bigger part of her life," Justice Hecht, who now serves on the Texas Supreme Court, said in an interview. "One evening she called me to her office and said she was ready to make a commitment" to accept Jesus Christ as her savior and be born again, he said. He walked down the hallway from his office to hers, and there amid the legal briefs and court papers, Ms. Miers and Justice Hecht "prayed and talked," he said.

Ms. Miers, born Roman Catholic, became an evangelical Christian and began identifying more with Republicans than with the Democrats who had long held sway over Texas politics. She joined the missions committee of her church, which is against legalized abortion, and friends and colleagues say she rarely looked back at her past as a Democrat.

Vickie Wilson, the office manager at Valley View, knew Ms. Miers from the time she began attending the church in 1979; Ms. Wilson's two daughters, now 27 and 30, were in Ms. Miers's Sunday youth group. Even though it was known that she was a high-powered lawyer in Dallas, "she never used the church to further her political career," Ms. Wilson said.

"She never took a role where she was trying to stand out front," Ms. Wilson said. "She put herself in servant roles, making coffee every Sunday morning and putting doughnuts out."

This might be enough to placate conservatives, especially since those who know her say that she is pro-life. Even so, some Christians, including James Dobson, are wary in supporting her because they are unclear about how she would rule. In addition, with her support of "the establishment of the International Criminal Court, homosexual adoptions, a major local tax increase and women in combat," these continue to cause concern about how she would rule on issues that the conservatives hold dear. At least one conservative columnist says that the "coffee and donuts defense" of Miers--that she is worthy of the Supreme Court Justiceship because she served in her church--is not enough reason that she would necessarily be a good judge: "But a good heart does not a great Supreme Court justice make." Some are saying that her nomination may be like Justice Souter's, who appeared to be conserative when he was nominated, but showed otherwise with his votes on the Court. Again, more information should be forthcoming. Let's hope she's the right candidate.