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Through no fault of her own, Harriet Miers should be rejected in committee

Guy T. Sturino
October 12, 2005
On October 12, 2005 the Associated Press published an article with the following quote attributed to President Bush as he spoke to White House reporters about his decision to appoint Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court:



"People are interested to know why I picked Harriet Miers. ... Part of Harriet Miers' life is her religion."

But, Article 6, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution of the United States clearly states:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

So, my questions are these:



  • Is the President unaware of these restrictions, which are clearly articulated in the Constitution of the United States? Or,


  • Does the President realize that, as an official within the government, he is bound by, and obligated to uphold, the Constitution of the United States? Or,

  • Is the President simply dismissive of the Constitution of the United States?



It is not Harriet Miers who has done anything wrong. An individual's religious belief is personal and should be beyond public scrutiny. However, the President has by inference admitted that he violated the U.S. Constitution in his selection process. The President will probably say that the Supreme Court appointment is his choice and how he makes his choice is a private matter. But under the laws of the United States that is not the case.

Harriet Miers may have all of the qualifications necessarry to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. But the President has clearly tainted her nomination and, consequently, rendered her an unsuitable candidate.

If for no other reason than this, Harriet Miers should be rejected in committee.
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Guy T. Sturino

My Name is Guy Sturino and I came to be in November of 1940 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. By the time I reached six years old my dad was back home and we had defeated both Germany and Japan.

The country was riding high. Sure, times were tough. Both my parents worked fairly regularly, but still we moved often and we spent a few of those early years in government project housing. TV came to our house when I was eleven.

When I was twelve I became an alter boy at Holy Rosary Catholic Church. Like all alter boys, I even thought someday I'd become a Priest. By the time I finished high school that illusion was gone and with it my fondness for the Catholic church. But, that's another story all by itself.

In high school Civics class we learned that we were the greatest. We learned that Democracy meant capitalism and Communism was the same as socialism. We were taught that Democracy was good and that socialism was bad. At the same time Joe McCarthy was telling us that Communists were hiding under our beds and if the bomb didn't get us those Commies sure would.

I took all that with me when I joined the Marines in '59 when my education really got started. In Thailand I learned about Buddhism, and how people who had very little and worked from dawn to dusk every day were the happiest and most sharing as a group that I had met up until that time. In Japan I saw and lived in a culture built around working together to achieve great things as opposed to the do-it-yourself rugged individualism expected in the American culture. Along the way I got to visit the Philippines and South Korea.

When I came home in '63 I drove a bread truck for a while and then hand poured aluminum in a foundry until the GI bill was signed in '65. I got a degree in Applied Science and Technology and went to work for American Motors. After a few years as a chassis engineer I moved over to quality control and eventually traveled Europe assessing quality systems in supplier manufacturing facilities. By the time I had interacted with workers in England, Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Italy, as well as China, South Korea and Japan, I had a totally new perspective on what was a fair return for a days work.

I worked for a couple of other companies before vacationing in Virginia Beach with my daughter and deciding that the tickets in my pocket for Riyadh and New Deli were simply too much after just returning from Beijing. I found a pizza shop for sale and bought it. Unfortunately I wasn't very successful as a restaurateur, and took a job as a substitute teacher for a year.

Undaunted, I applied for a job as a teacher assistant the next year and got it. Two years later I was teaching algebra in an alternative high school where, at 62 years old I retired.
I already had a serious interest in politics, but having the time to actually watch the House and the Senate on Cspan really got my interest. I learned things about our government that I certainly never heard about in school and I had to wonder why not. About 2005 I decided to begin sharing my thoughts on the web. By the middle of 2007 I sort of lost, not the interest, but the drive to communicate.

Recent events have changed that.

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