SMU peers remember Miers as 'all business'

[Cheesesteak]

SMU peers remember Miers as 'all business'

They recall her drive but got little insight on her politics, beliefs

09:33 PM CDT on Wednesday, October 5, 2005 Dallasnews.com
By ROY APPLETON and KENT FISCHER / The Dallas Morning News

The political clamor of her formative years did not distract young Harriet Miers.

Just as Southern Methodist University was relatively removed from the turmoil surrounding Watergate, Vietnam, women's rights and abortion during the late '60s and early '70s, Ms. Miers remained singularly focused on academics, campus life and whatever challenges were at hand.

Her friends and former classmates say the future Supreme Court nominee didn't discuss her views on those issues. Many close to the math major and budding lawyer say that, during her years at SMU, they knew little about her politics and beliefs.

Dallas lawyer Jim Martin dated Ms. Miers for two years, and was engaged to her for a year after law school. Yet, he said Wednesday, they didn't discuss politics. And although Roe vs. Wade, which began in Dallas, was headed to the Supreme Court, he said he didn't know his former fiancé's views on abortion.

As a law student at SMU in 1969, Ted Minick worked with Ms. Miers as an editor on the Southwestern Law Journal. Despite long working hours, he came away with no clear picture of her politics. He remembers her as outspoken on ethical issues, such as when "somebody was getting the short end of the stick."

But when asked for an example, he drew a blank. "You know, none really come to mind."

Advocacy groups find all this frustrating, especially when coupled with Ms. Miers' lack of a judicial record. The absence of information has left many, especially conservatives, unsure whether they should embrace or reject her.

So it is with Harriet Miers, whose work ethic, intelligence and integrity are renowned among friends and colleagues.
'Impossible to dislike'

Frank Carroll co-taught a night class with Ms. Miers at SMU law school. Together, they explained how to cross-examine a witness, how to prepare an opening argument and how to question an expert witness. Mr. Carroll called her "outstanding, an excellent teacher." She is, he said, somebody that is "virtually impossible to dislike."

"I've known Harriet Miers for 30 years, and I couldn't tell you that I really understand any of her personal opinions on anything. She's all business," he said.

Mr. Martin said he knew Ms. Miers in law school and renewed the acquaintance through friends in 1971 as they began their careers.

They dated about two years and "at some point I gave her a ring and asked her to marry me," he recalled. The engagement lasted about a year and ended on friendly terms when they "decided that marriage wasn't the wisest thing to do," Mr. Martin said.

"She was kind enough to give me the ring back," he said of the single-stone, one-karat diamond.

Mr. Martin remembers a relationship short on free time because of their long hours – she as a clerk to U.S. District Judge Joe Estes and later as the first female employee of the Locke Purnell Boren Laney and Neeley law firm; he working for a Dallas law firm.

"I don't think she had time for marriage," said Beverly Neblett Ballantine, a law school friend who helped re-introduce the two.

The couple played tennis, attended a Presbyterian church, would go out to dinner, catch a movie and at times hang out with friends, maybe drink a few beers and listen to the music of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and other "late folkies," Mr. Martin said. "It was tame by other people's standards."

Despite Vietnam, Watergate and other burning issues, the couple didn't talk about politics, Mr. Martin said. The Supreme Court's landmark abortion decision in Roe vs. Wade came during their time together, but "honestly, I don't think we ever discussed it," he said. "Maybe that's why we had no business being engaged."

The city's lack of political fervor didn't exactly foster heated debates, Mr. Martin said. "Dallas wasn't Washington, D.C."

Mr. Martin, a native of suburban Washington, also found the atmosphere at SMU puzzling, and wondered why "the [SMU] undergraduate population had nothing better to do than drink and go to football games."

His fiancé, Mr. Martin said, rarely shared her private thoughts or ambitions, even on a trip they took to Big Bend National Park, Los Angeles and San Francisco. "Harriet was content to be focused on the job at hand. She thought if you do the best job you can, everything will take care of itself."

But the young lawyer, who laterbecame the first female president of the Dallas and Texas bar associations, was concerned about the standing and opportunities for women in the workplace, he said.

And as the counterculture years faded, she tried to help youths who had lost their direction, Mr. Martin said. The couple volunteered at church-sponsored gathering spots on Cedar Springs Road and McKinney Avenue.

Ms. Ballantine said she too didn't talk politics with Ms. Miers in those years, and still doesn't. "We would talk about cases. We were focused on the law," she said.

Ms. Miers lived with her mother, Sally, and younger brother Jeb during her SMU undergraduate and law school years. Her father, Morris Miers, suffered a stroke during her freshman year, leaving the family in financial straits.

Concerned that she couldn't afford to keep her daughter in school, Ms. Miers' mother telephoned SMU President Willis M. Tate, seeking help, said the nominee's brother, Robert Miers. The president arranged a scholarship and job for the student at the university's campus computer center, Mr. Miers said. "Harriet and the family are grateful to this day."
Group activities

At SMU she shunned student government and sorority life but participated in other groups. She was treasurer of the Mortar Board chapter, president of the campus YWCA, honored for scholarship and leadership as a member of Kirkos, and received the university's M Award for "distinguished and creative student activity."

In law school, the honors continued to accumulate, and she expressed a commitment to pro bono work and community service. "She was an excellent student, very pleasant and very well prepared," said Harvey Wingo, her constitutional law professor.

By her second semester, Ms. Miers, who was one of only a dozen women in her class, was invited to write for the Law Journal. The next year, she was named an editor, where she vetted and edited the publication's "Comments." She was also the first woman inducted into the Order of the Barristers, a law school service group.

Mr. Minick, her law review co-editor, remembers there was "vigorous debate" over Ms. Miers' entrance into the group. Some members were concerned that, as a woman, she wouldn't fit in during their annual retreat to Lake Murray State Park in Oklahoma, which entailed, among other things, a bit of drinking around the campfire.

In the end, Ms. Miers fit in perfectly well with their "good times," Mr. Minick said.

E-mail rappleton@dallasnews.com and kfischer@dallasnews.com

[Stallion]

Trivia: Who is the only other Texan to ever sit on the Supreme Court. I got a personal tour of the Supreme Court by this justice. Who is it?

[jtstang]

Wasn't Sandy born in Texas?

[EastStang]

Justice O'Conner was born in El Paso, Texas.

[jtstang]

Stallion, how'd you come to get that private tour?

[EastStang]

John Riggins wasn't available.

[Stallion]

thru Dad's longtime friendship with this family. Actually the sources I have don't list O'conner as the lone Texan-although they could be wrong. The Justice I'm thinking of grew up in Dallas. Hint: I believe he and his son are the only father-son US Attorney Generals in history. My Dad is a former Chairman of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of the American Bar and sat on the ABA Board of Govenors so that helped in getting the tour.

[jtstang]

Found a history of the court website that says Sandra ws born in El Paso and raised in NM and El Paso. Couldn't find any other justices from Texas, so I have no clue who you are talking about.

[Peruna_Ate_My_Rolex]

Tom C. Clark would be the answer. His son William Ramsey Clark served as US Atty General under LBJ.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_C._Clark

[Stallion]

there you go. You get the prize-just report to the SMU ticket office next week and you can get as many kids as you can bring into the SMU game free.

[Peruna_Ate_My_Rolex]

Awesome! I'll be sure to invite every boy scout troop I know next week! Oh wait, they'll already be there. Nevermind