Last week, Harriet Meirs withdrew her nomination to be a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. as far as we can tell, the 60-year-old Texas lawyer was nominated to the top court by President Bush because she was his personal lawyer and a nice lady.
Instead of the usual howling by Democrats such as Ted Kennedy about how Meirs would set aside Roe v. Wade and send the country back to the middle ages, the harshest criticism of the appointment came from Republicans and conservatives. although Harriet Meirs was not the first appointee to the top court that had no previous experience on the bench, she had no particular experience with, and showed no particular interest in constitutional matters. She was an evangelical Christian who had supported Democrats in the past. Her ability to be on the Supreme Court was a complete unknown. To use the vernacular, her appointment was at best, a crapshoot.
Meirs was George Bush’s private lawyer and she withdrew her nomination when it became apparent that Senators were going to demand the production of privileged documents. The embarrassment to Bush and his administration would only have gotten worse had she not withdrawn her name from consideration.
Speaking after the withdrawal of the nomination, Senator Trent Lott said, "Let’s move on. In a month, who will remember the name of Harriet Meirs?"
actually, Senator, Harriet Meirs will undoubtedly be remembered long after your name disappears from the collective memory of the populace. We live in an age of celebrity such that with the right breaks, anyone can become a legend. We give legendary status to practically everyone from rock stars and rappers to actors to sports figures to serial killers. Except to perhaps Supreme Court Justices; after all, with a few exceptions such as Felix Frankfurter, how many judges are remembered 50, 60 or 100 years after their terms on the Court finish?
While almost anyone can become a legend, very few human beings ever achieve the status of becoming an adverb or a verb. Perhaps the most famous living one is another judicial nominee, Robert Bork.. Bork was sitting as a judge on the United States Court of appeals for the District of Columbia in 1987 when Ronald Reagan appointed him to the Supreme Court of the United States. Bork’s nomination was vigorously opposed by liberal groups because of his conservative views and his opinion that the constitution does not contain a right to privacy, the right that was at the centre of the Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. The Senate rejected Bork’s nomination by a vote of 58-42. Ever since then, any candidate that failed confirmation in the Senate is said to "have been borked". as a somewhat humourous aside, Robert Bork thought that Harriet Miers should have been "borked".
Henceforth, and as long as the United States lasts in its present form, any candidate for a judicial appointment who is pressured into withdrawing their nomination because of strong opposition from both political parties will be referred to as “being meired”. Like Robert Bork, Harriet Meirs has achieved immorality.
The phrase "being meired" has already received some usage and is likely to remain. Contrary to Trent Lott’s assertion, the name of Harriet Meirs will not disappear in a month. It will be with us forever.
as Robert Bork has no doubt discovered, it’s much better to be an adverb than a judge.