Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers pledged support in 1989 for a constitutional amendment banning abortions except when necessary to save the life of the mother, according to material given to the Senate on Tuesday.

"If Congress passes a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution that would prohibit abortion except when it was necessary to prevent the death of the mother, would you actively support its ratification by the Texas Legislature," asked an April 1989 questionnaire sent out by the Texans United for Life group.

Miers checked "yes" to that question, and all of the group's questions, including whether she would oppose the use of public moneys for abortions and whether she would use her influence to keep "pro-abortion" people off city health boards and commissions.

Preventing the elevation of meagerly qualified job seekers and nominees is among the Senate's most basic responsibilities. The world's oldest deliberative body has clearly neglected this function during the Bush era. Such business as usual might have continued in this case, except that the president and his advisors have now moved beyond cronyism with an even more serious and blunt affront to constitutional standards.

By seeking to convince leaders of the religious right to support Miers because of her religious affiliations, the White House overstepped a boundary that the founders held sacred. Using her conservative evangelical church to persuade James Dobson to back her, as Karl Rove did, was bad enough. But for Bush to suggest to those same theocratic politicos that her religion is among her qualifications is simply unacceptable and indelibly taints her nomination.