PRESIDENT BUSH has nominated Harriet Miers, his former personal lawyer from Texas and a woman who has never been a judge, to fill the latest vacancy on the US Supreme Court, triggering a potentially damaging showdown with his own conservative supporters.

The choice of Ms Miers, 60, who has no judicial “paper trail” for Democrats to attack, appeared to be an effort by the White House to avoid a bruising confirmation battle at a time when support for Mr Bush is waning.

But in trying to placate Democrats, Mr Bush unleashed a potentially far more damaging group of opponents: his own conservative base. Many were outraged at his failure to choose a judge with unambiguous conservative credentials.

At a time when his Administration is under fire for cronyism, choosing a woman from his inner circle of advisers also dismayed some Republicans.

Picking Ms Miers, they said, only strengthened Democrat claims of rampant nepotism within the White House.

If confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate, Ms Miers, who has been White House counsel since November 2004, will replace Sandra Day O’Connor, who announced her retirement in July.

Mrs O’Connor was a swing voter on the finely balanced nine-member court on bitterly contested social issues such as abortion and affirmative action. The powerful Religious Right, which has waited a generation for this moment, had expected Mr Bush to pick a clear social conservative, shifting the political make-up of America’s highest court definitively their way.

Although Ms Miers, a fiercely loyal adviser to Mr Bush since the 1980s, is undoubtedly a conservative who is believed to oppose abortion, her nomination received an unexpectedly positive reaction from Democrats.

Conservative worries were heightened after it emerged that Ms Miers was a Democrat in the 1980s, donating $1,000 to Al Gore’s unsuccessful 1988 presidential campaign when Mr Bush’s father ran for president.

Ed Gillespie, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said that she was a “conservative” Democrat who switched party allegiance.

David Frum, a former speechwriter for Mr Bush and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank, told The Times: “Bush had a dozen superbly first-rate unquestionably conservative judges to pick from and he didn’t pick any of them.

“Bush was criticised in his first term for pandering to his base. This time he has turned his back on his base.”

Manuel Miranda, the chairman of the Third Branch Conference, a coalition of conservative grassroots organisations, said: “The reaction of many conservatives will be that the President has made the most unqualified choice since Abe Fortas (nominated by Lyndon Johnson in 1965), who had been the President’s lawyer. A nominee with no judicial record is a significant failure.”

The White House pointed out that 20 previous Supreme Court justices never served as judges before being appointed, including William Rehnquist, the late Chief Justice who died last month. He was the Assistant Attorney-General when nominated by Richard Nixon in 1972. John Roberts, his replacement, began his job as the new Chief Justice yesterday.

Ms Miers, who has never married and has no children, is an evangelical Christian and successful private lawyer, and had been in charge of finding a replacement for Mrs O’Connor. Being picked herself duplicates a move Mr Bush made in 2000, when he chose Dick Cheney, who headed his search committee for a vice-presidential candidate, to be his running-mate.

In nominating her yesterday, Mr Bush referred to Ms Miers as a trailblazing female lawyer: first woman hired by her law firm in 1972, first woman president of the Dallas Bar Association, first woman president of the Texas State Bar and first woman president of her law firm. If confirmed, she will join Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the second woman on the court and the third to serve there.

After being Mr Bush’s personal lawyer during his 1994 campaign for Texas Governor, Ms Miers moved with him to Washington in 2000 as Staff Secretary, the person who controls every piece of paper that crosses the President’s desk. Andrew Card, the White House Chief of Staff, once described her as “one of the favourite people in the White House”.

Mr Bush, seeking to reassure conservatives, said as he nominated her: “Harriet Miers will strictly interpret our Constitution and laws. She will not legislate from the bench.” He added: “I’ve known Harriet for more than a decade. I know her heart. I know her character.”

Ms Miers, also speaking the language of judicial conservatism, said: “If confirmed, I will have a tremendous responsibility . . . to strictly apply the laws and the Constitution.”

But the reaction from Democrats, who had been preparing for a bitter filibuster battle, was muted and even complimentary. Robbed of a lengthy judicial record to dissect, Harry Reid, the Democrat Senate leader, said:

“The Supreme Court would benefit from the addition of a justice who has real experience as a practising lawyer.”

HARRIET MIERS

Age 60

Born Dallas, Texas

1972 First woman hired by Dallas law firm Locke Purnell Rain Harrell

1992 First woman elected president of the Texas State Bar

1996 First woman president of law firm

1994 Lawyer to George Bush during Texas governor campaign

1995-2001 chairwoman, Texas Lottery Commission

2001-03 White House Staff Secretary

2003-04 White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy

2004 White House counsel

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