Oct 21, 2005   | COMMENTS     

During her successful 1989 bid for Dallas City Council, Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers told a conservative group that she opposed legislation to protect people with AIDS and people "perceived to have AIDS" from discrimination.

On a survey circulated by the Dallas Eagle Forum — a chapter of the Eagle Forum, which was founded by anti-gay conservative Phyllis Schafly — Miers checked "No" in response to the question, "Would you support an ordinance that would force individual property owners and businesses to provide accommodations to persons with AIDS (acquired immune deficiency) and those perceived to have AIDS?"

The Dallas Eagle Forum questionnaire was among the batch of Miers' personal documents delivered to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

Miers' responses to the questions about AIDS came as a surprise to Louise Young, who took part in questioning Miers on her views on gay and lesbian issues as co-chair of the Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance of Dallas during the 1989 city council race.

Young, a longtime lesbian activist in Dallas, said that Miers responded differently to a candidate survey by the Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance and even participated in a forum sponsored by the group.

"She seemed uncomfortable," Young said. "But she was polite."

In a questionnaire from the gay group, Miers said she believed that gay men and lesbians should have the same civil rights as non-gay men and women. She also said that she opposed repealing the state's sodomy law which criminalized gay sex exclusively - the law was overturned by the Supreme Court's Lawrence vs. Texas decision in 2003.

When asked if she would support an ordinance to prohibit discrimination in housing and public accommodations based on HIV/AIDS status, and an ordinance to prohibit discrimination in employment based on AIDS/HIV status and several other categories, Miers answered more favorably than on the Eagle Forum questionnaire.

"I prefer a legislative solution to the issues raised by these questions," she wrote in response. "I do not have all the facts on the significance of these ordinances, however, I am willing to discuss the need and make an appropriate decision when fully advised."

Young said that Miers had a "mixed bag" of views on gay issues, and said she had been withholding judgment on her nomination to the Supreme Court.

But after learning of Miers' statements to the Dallas Eagle Forum this week, Young said she is "pretty troubled" about the prospect of Miers serving as a Supreme Court justice.

"I don't know how much she could remove her personal feelings from her judicial rulings," Young said.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990, one year after the Miers questionnaires, banned many types of discrimination against people with certain disabilities.

In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Bragdon vs. Abbott that persons with HIV, even if they show no symptoms of full-blown AIDS, are protected by the ADA. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who Miers has been nominated to replace, dissented from the decision in a close 5-4 vote.

Backed amendment overturning Roe

Young said she was also concerned about Miers' stance on abortion. During the 1989 city council race, Miers told a pro-life group that she would support a constitutional amendment banning abortions and that she would use her role as an elected official to advance the pro-life cause.

In meeting with senators last week, Miers gave mixed messages about her views on the right to privacy, which underpinned both the Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion and Lawrence vs. Texas, which overturned sodomy laws.

Sen. Arlen Spector (R-Penn.), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee set to question Miers starting Nov. 7, said this week after meeting with the nominee that she had said in their private discussion that she supports the right to privacy first established in the 1965 case of Griswold vs. Connecticut, which struck down laws banning condom sales.

But the next day, Miers sent Specter a letter saying he had misunderstood their conversation and she had not indicated support for that ruling.

Specter, who is pro-choice, said later that he accepted her disavowal but expects to question her closely on the issue.

As for the AIDS issue, Miers' answers to the Dallas Eagle Forum are difficult to analyze because of the way the questions are phrased, said Michael Adams, director of education and public affairs for Lambda Legal.

The conservative group's questions refer to "forcing" businesses to hire people with AIDS and "forcing" property owners to provide accommodations to people with AIDS.

"This is not the usual language that we use when talking about civil rights," Adam said. "We should ...