Quiz hints at nominee's views on gay rights

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U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers gave mixed answers on same-sex rights in a questionnaire she filled out from a Texas gay rights group during her successful 1989 run for the Dallas City Council. She told the group she believed gay men and lesbians should have the same civil rights as straight Americans, but that she opposed repeal of the state's sodomy law criminalizing same-sex sexual conduct.

The Supreme Court struck down the sodomy law on a 6-3 vote in 2003 in the case of Lawrence v. Texas. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, whom Miers has been nominated to replace, voted with the majority in the ruling, which effectively erased sodomy laws in 13 other states. The Texas revelations came the same day President Bush fielded questions from reporters at the White House about his nomination of Miers, including whether he had discussed abortion with her. (Watch: Bush defends nominee -- 5:40)

"Not to my recollection have I ever sat down with her ," Bush said Tuesday at his first solo press conference since May. "What I have done is understand the type of person she is and the type of judge she will be."
The president said he has never discussed abortion with any of his judicial nominees. "There is no litmus test," he said.

Bush also defended the 60-year-old Miers, who came to Washington with him from Texas in 2001 and has been White House counsel since February, against Democratic charges of cronyism and questions about her conservative record, saying she shares his legal philosophy.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/04/miers/index.html