Upon Harriet Miers’ decision to withdraw as a nominee to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, commented on the nominee and the hearing process.
“I am saddened that this good and decent public servant has decided to withdraw her nomination for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Harriet Miers is yet one more victim of a process that has gone seriously awry in the past two decades. Nominees are subject to such brutalization in the current atmosphere that even as tough a guy as Associate Justice Antonin Scalia has said that if he were to face the prospect of a nomination today, he would likely not allow himself to be nominated.
“Until and when this nomination atmosphere is corrected, the country will be deprived of the services of many gifted and able people who refuse to put themselves and their families through this kind of ordeal. President Bush and his nominee, Harriet Miers, deserved better treatment than they received.
“The President will no doubt move forward with another nominee in fulfillment of his campaign pledge to nominate strict constructionist, original intent jurists in whom he has full confidence. It is widely reported that prior to the announcement of Harriet Miers’ nomination, several extremely qualified candidates asked to be withdrawn from consideration because of the corrosive and bitter process that judicial confirmation has become. I hope that such potential nominees will change their minds and allow themselves to be considered by the President this time, but I fear that nothing that has occurred in the Harriet Miers nomination process will encourage them to do so.”
The Southern Baptist Convention is America’s largest non-Catholic denomination with more than 16.3 million members in 43,024 churches nationwide. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is the SBC’s ethics, religious liberty and public policy agency with offices in Nashville, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C.
