Not a Harvard-Yale-Supreme Court clerk-elite D.C. legal insider

I will comment in detail about President Bush's nomination of his White House Counsel, Harriet Miers, for Sandra Day O'Connor's seat on the Supreme Court later, when I have more information, or rather, when the talking heads tell me what to repeat. However, I am struck by everyone's attacks on her education. As one blogger put it, Miers' alma mater, the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University is "crappy". However, Jeremy Richey considers SMU law school's ranking of 52 in U.S. News & World Report as "solid". Most of the members of the Supreme Court have come from the Holy Trinity of Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, but should that be a detriment if one didn't get his or her law degree from those three? More than one practicing lawyer has noted the ranking of your school doesn't determine how good of a lawyer you are, and by extension, how good of a judge you will be. There have been notable members of the Supreme Court who didn't go to a Top 100, let alone a Top 10 school. Justice Thurgood Marshall went to Howard University, a Tier 3 school. The second Justice John Harlan went to New York Law School, another Tier 3 school. Chief Justice Warren Burger went to the St. Paul College of Law, which became William Mitchell College of Law, a fourth tier school. Many members of the right decry Harriet Miers because they were so much more worthier candidates that were passed up. Among them were Karen J. Williams of the 4th Circuit, who went to the University of South Carolina Law Center (the other USC), 90th in the rankings, and Priscilla Owen of the 5th Circuit, who attended Baylor, another law school ranked 52. Edith Brown Clement will be remembered for the fake-out leading up to Roberts' nomination. She attended the currently inundated Tulane Law School, ranked 41st. I'm not saying the President's nominee is the equal of anyone I've mentioned. I just believe that though Harriet Miers may seem to be unqualified, a more substantial reason than her law school sucks should be given.