Opening Fire on Miers

On the new commute today (45 minutes each way and jesus it's scary when a giant SUV merges from the right at 75 miles an hour), I listened to the NPR coverage of the Harriet Miers announcement. I simply cannot understand why on earth so many commentators - right and the left, law profs and law journalists, public-affairs reporters and, like, public-address technicians - think that Miers' ideology is so hidden. Did they hear what she said in her "brief remarks"?

It is the responsibility of every generation to be true to the founders' vision of the proper role of the courts in our society. If confirmed, I recognize that I will have a tremendous responsibility to keep our judicial system strong and help ensure that the courts meet their obligation to strictly apply the law and the Constitution.

You don't have to be frigging John Marshall or even Nina Totenberg to know that those statements = staunch originalism. Unless the Constitution specifically authorizes something - like, say, the Congressional privilege to declare war (Iraq, anyone?) - she is likely to say that it ain't allowed. Forget 20th century legal innovations like a right to privacy - originalists probably don't even think that judicial review (a 19th century innovation) is authorized by the Constitution. Miers may be a cipher, but she's not the kind of cipher we need on the court now.

Premodern judicial philosophies aside, Miers apparently has quite good owl hooting skills: