Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Harriet Miers's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court presents senators with a blank slate -- the scantest public record at least since David H. Souter was named to the court 15 years ago.

Miers, the White House counsel, was chosen by President George W. Bush yesterday to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, often the court's swing vote on such issues as abortion and affirmative action. Miers, a 60-year-old Texan, has known Bush since the 1980s and has been a corporate as well as government lawyer. She has never been a judge and hasn't made public pronouncements on major legal and constitutional issues.

``It's hard to believe, with the wealth of talent that President Bush had to choose from for this seat, that he went with someone about whom so little is known,'' said Roger Pilon, director of the Center for Constitutional Studies at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington.

Many reacted the same way when Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, nominated Souter in 1990. Souter had virtually no paper trail on the federal constitutional issues he would face on the Supreme Court, though he was a former New Hampshire attorney general, a state Supreme Court justice and had just been confirmed to a U.S. appeals court.

Even less is known about Miers, who worked as a lawyer on Bush's 1994 gubernatorial campaign and served in Washington as his staff secretary and deputy chief of staff.

``The record we have so far is simply insufficient to assess the qualifications of this nominee,'' said Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.

Kennedy, who has met privately with Miers on a number of occasions, has told associates that personally he likes her.

Anti-Abortion Group

On abortion, Miers hasn't said whether the Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide in 1973 was correctly decided, though she did once give money to an anti-abortion group.

She donated $150 in 1989 to the anti-abortion Texans United for Life, according to Kyleen Wright, president of Texans for Life Coalition, as the organization is now known. The donation let Miers, then a member of the Dallas City Council, become a ``bronze'' patron for the group's annual dinner, Wright said.

In 1993, as president of the State Bar of Texas, she tried unsuccessfully to persuade the American Bar Association to put the organization's endorsement of abortion rights to a vote of the full membership.

The ABA position ``has no meaning unless it is endorsed in fact by the membership,'' Miers said at the time, according to the Associated Press. Bar association delegates defeated her proposal by a greater than 2-1 margin.

Microsoft, Disney

Miers also has contributed to Democratic causes, according to PoliticalMoneyLine, a Washington-based company that tracks campaign finances. In 1988 she gave $1,000 each to Al Gore's presidential campaign, Lloyd Bentsen's U.S. Senate campaign and the Democratic National Committee. She later donated to Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, when he defeated Gore.

As a private litigator in Texas for 26 years, she represented companies including Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft Corp. and Burbank, California-based Walt Disney Co. and rose to co-managing partner of Locke Liddell & Sapp in Dallas.

Miers represented software maker Microsoft on at least two occasions. She unsuccessfully argued a 1995 appeal seeking to block a class-action suit by consumers who said Microsoft shouldn't have charged for an upgrade to its data-storage software. Miers also helped defend the company against a 1998 patent lawsuit.

In 1998 Miers helped Disney fend off a lawsuit by a company that had sought to sponsor a musical tour under the Disney name. She represented a group of Texas automobile dealers defending against a consumer price-fixing suit filed in 1997.

Issues Before the Court

``She's had experience in a myriad of business issues. That's certainly helpful,'' said Robin Conrad, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's litigation unit in Washington. ``Prior to John Roberts going on the court, we'd seen a bit of a lack of interest in business issues. And maybe this is the sign of a positive new trend.''

If confirmed by the Senate, Miers would join the court at least two months into its nine-month term, which began yesterday. Cases on the docket include a dispute over a New Hampshire law requiring underage women to get parental consent to undergo an abortion, and a Vermont campaign-finance case that will let the court restudy its 1976 decision that outlawed involuntary limits on candidate spending.

A military-recruiting case asks whether the government can threaten to withhold money from universities whose law schools limit recruiting on campus to protest the ban on acknowledged homosexuals in the armed forces.

Work Ethic

Miers was the first woman president of the Dallas Bar Association and the Texas State Bar. She came to Washington with Bush after he was elected in 2000.

Her friends and colleagues said a strong work ethic and thorough preparation helped propel her career.

``She is dutiful, kind of like a good student who underlines all her notes,'' said Rena Pederson, director of communications at the American College of Education in Dallas.

Bush once described her as ``a pit bull in size 6 shoes.''

While leading the Dallas Bar Association, Miers created a dinner to raise money for minority scholarships, said Timothy Mountz, the group's current president. The event has raised $1 million over 20 years, he said. Miers established three centers in Dallas where the poor could receive low-cost legal advice, Mountz said.

Merrie Spaeth, a friend and Republican activist, said Miers was one of the female policy and legal wonks who made up a ``pushy-broad network'' in Dallas.

``Harriet can get really excited about a Fifth Circuit rule,'' Spaeth said, referring to the federal appeals court circuit that includes Texas. ``She would look at you blankly if you mentioned the name of a designer.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Laurie Asseo in Washington at lasseo1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 4, 2005 00:00 EDT