High Court Pick’s Record Has Little on Education

Harriet E. Miers, President Bush’s choice to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, helped shepherd the No Child Left Behind Act through its final stages in her staff role at the White House, according to one of the president’s closest advisers on education at the time.

“Clearly, everything went though Harriet that went to the president; she would provide times to see the president and [pass along] the different pieces of paper the president would need to see,” said Sandy Kress, who was Mr. Bush’s education adviser in 2001, when the White House and Congress reached a bipartisan agreement on a major reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. At the time, Ms. Miers was the White House staff secretary.

The president announced his selection of Ms. Miers, now the White House counsel, for the high court on Oct. 3. His longtime confidante, who handled mostly business-related work as a lawyer in Dallas and does not have judicial experience, appears to lack much of a paper trail from which to draw conclusions about how she might rule in an area as...