Another Unqualified Appointee

President Bush today announced his nominee for the Associate Justice slot opened up by Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement from the Supreme Court. His nominee is a woman, but she is a woman completely lacking in judicial qualifications. She has never been so much as a traffic court judge, much less an appellate judge, so she has no business whatsoever being appointed to a lifetime tenure on the Supreme Court.

This appointment highlights exactly the reason I advocated confirming John Roberts: people of sanity and reason need to save our ammunition for the battles that count most.

Harriet Miers must be blocked from the Supreme Court. Republicans should join with Democrats in opposing this unqualified nominee; if they do not, Democrats should not hesitate to filibuster. As for the unconstitutional "nuclear option," it requires a 2/3 vote of the Senate to change the rules of the Senate. Doing so by a ruling from the chair is illegal, and sets the worst possible precedent. Indeed, it is so far beyond the realm of legitimate exercise of authority that if the Senate does exercise the "nuclear option," the Supreme Court has a moral and legal obligation to refuse to seat the nominee thus illegally confirmed.