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Harriet Miers Takes Another Crack at the U.S. Supreme Court
The National Law Journal
August 20, 2009
Former White House counsel Harriet Miers once aspired to serve on the Supreme Court, a bid that failed in 2005. Now, back in private practice, she's angling to argue a case before the high court.
Miers, nominated to the Supreme Court by President George W. Bush, filed a certiorari petition May 22 in a dispute about whether state and local governments have authority to tax natural gas that is held temporarily in storage in an interstate pipeline system.
The Supreme Court has not ruled on the petition. But the Court on Aug. 4 called for a response from opposing counsel, a sign that shows the Court's interest in the petition.
The petition Miers filed on behalf of Missouri Gas Energy is her fourth -- and the first since she returned to private practice in May 2007. Miers said in her Senate questionnaire that she represented clients in three cases in which certiorari was sought. The Supreme Court denied cert in each of the cases.
Miers, a partner in the Washington, Dallas, and Austin offices of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, withdrew her Supreme Court nomination in October 2005 amid criticism and waning support from conservative lawmakers. Miers left government service in 2007 and rejoined Locke Lord, a firm she co-managed before leaving joining the Bush administration in 2001. Miers is a partner in the firm's public policy and litigation groups.
Miers, 64, who has houses in Dallas and Arlington, Va., did not return an e-mail and a call for comment. A spokeswoman for the firm, returning the request for comment on behalf of Miers, said Miers will not talk about pending litigation.
Missouri Gas Energy is challenging taxes that officials in Wood County, Oklahoma, levied on natural gas in an underground storage facility.
MGE sells gas to customers in Missouri, where the company is based. MGE does not sell gas in Oklahoma. Gas from one company is commingled with gas from another company in interstate pipeline systems. Miers said in the petition that it is impossible to determine the ownership of even a single molecule of gas in an interstate pipeline.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court upheld the tax in an opinion last year. "The contested assessment is not a tax on property that is merely passing through Woods County to an out-of-state destination," the Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Marian Opala wrote in the 8-1 ruling. "It is a tax on tangible personal property actually located in Woods County on the assessment dates."
In her petition for certiorari, Miers said there is "widening disagreement and confusion" regarding the constitutional limitations on state and local taxes of natural gas that is held in storage in an interstate pipeline system. "This petition presents a timely opportunity to resolve the existing confusion potentially affecting every shipper of natural gas and the customers to whom the natural gas is ultimately sold."
The U.S. Supreme Court has called for a response that is due Sept 3. Mart Tisdal of the Tisdal Law Firm in Clinton, Okla., represents Monica Schmidt, the Woods County assessor. Tisdal wasn't immediately reached for comment Wednesday.
This article first appeared on The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.
