Miers: Don't Legislate Religion or Morality

A story in today’s Washington Post reports that in a speech to a Dallas women’s group in 1993, Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers said she believed in “self-determination” in controversial issues, such as abortion and school prayer, rather than governmental action. While this is welcome news for civil libertarians, it is likely to stir even more opposition to her nomination from the Christian right and other conservatives within the Republican Party.

The Post described Miers’ views as being libertarian. Here’s a sample of the comments she made to Executive Women of Dallas: "The ongoing debate continues surrounding the attempt to once again criminalize abortions or to once and for all guarantee the freedom of the individual women's [sic] right to decide for herself whether she will have an abortion . . . Those seeking to resolve such disputes would do well to remember that ‘we gave up’ a long time ago on ‘legislating religion or morality,’ she said. And ‘when science cannot determine the facts and decisions vary based upon religious belief, then government should not act . . . The underlying theme in most of these cases is the insistence of more self-determination . . . And the more I think about these issues, the more self-determination makes sense."

The comments she made during this speech is one of the first reports to provide us an insight into the spoken personal views of Harriet Miers on matters of civil liberties. Advance Indiana likes what it hears. But the right wing nuts’ ears are most certainly burning. You can read the full text of her speech here. It really reveals her common sense approach to the law, which is very refreshing and badly needed on our Supreme Court.