Cheney's residence status & Miers

According to the 12th Amendment of the Constitution, a presidential and vice presidential candidate inhabiting the same state cannot both earn that state's electoral votes.

This caused problems for Dick Cheney in 2000. He had been residing in Highland Park, Texas since 1995. But he wanted to run for vice president on the same ticket with Texan George W. Bush.

To solve the problem, Cheney put up his Texas home for sale and registered to vote in Wyoming.

But a lawsuit was filed in Dallas County that claimed that Cheney held a Texas driver's license listing his Highland Park address and that, on Feb. 22, 2000, he changed his personal records at the Texas Department of Public Safety and again listed the Dallas address. It also claimed Cheney's vehicles were registered in Texas, that he paid taxes on them in Dallas County, that he had filed federal income tax returns listing himself as a Texas resident and that he had lived in the Highland Park home for the last five years.

The case was assigned to Judge Sidney Fitzwater, a Republican appointed by former President Reagan. And the lead attorney for Cheney's defense was none other than Harriet Miers.

Miers' argument was that, even though residency laws require a year of residence, that Cheney "intended" to live in Wyoming and that was enough.

Miers was obviously successful and Bush/Cheney were free to accept any and all electoral votes the Supreme Court awarded.

Many have called Miers' nomination to the Supreme Court "cronyism," and I think this case shows where her allegiance lies.