Newsroom

SMU Law Dean Writes to Support
Nomination of Harriett Miers

DALLAS (SMU) – SMU School of Law Dean John Attanasio has written a letter to Senate Judiciary leaders endorsing the nomination of Harriet Miers as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In his letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter and Ranking Member Patrick Leahy, Attanasio summarized Miers’ “high-powered legal career” and cited her experience dealing with “the most complex of legal issues, both constitutional and statutory – issues which resemble those that Justices of the Supreme Court continually face.” In addition to serving as dean of SMU’s Dedman School of Law, Attanasio is the William Hawley Atwell Professor of Constitutional Law at SMU. “As a constitutionalist, I have no doubt that Harriet Miers is extremely well qualified to be a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.”

As a distinguished member of the national legal community, Miers was on a path to become chair of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates. This position “generally leads to [becoming] president of the ABA, the most notable which Lewis Powell held before being appointed to the Court,” Attanasio said. Miers withdrew her candidacy when she joined the White House staff.

 In addition, Miers “rose to positions of authority despite the barriers encountered by professional women,” the dean wrote.

As a graduate of the SMU School of Law, Miers “stands right at the top,” he said. Fellow graduates include nine federal District Court judges and two members of Congress, six alumni who have served on the Texas Supreme Court and one on the Supreme Court of Missouri, and numerous others who have served as state judges. “Three SMU law graduates have been justices on the Japanese Supreme Court and others have served on the highest courts of the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Egypt, and Korea. Our graduates work in over 70 countries. Many have become CEO’s or presidents of major corporations…, bar association leaders and managing partners and named partners of some of the largest law firms in the country and the world.”

Click here to read Dean Attanasio’s letter.

 

 

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