Harriet Miers, Supreme Deal Maker

Posted by Pudentilla at Skippy:

miers family received 'excessive' sum in land case - supreme court nominee harriet miers collected more than 10 times the market value for a small slice of family-owned land in a large superfund pollution cleanup site in dallas where the state wanted to build a highway off-ramp.

the windfall came after a judge who received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from miers' law firm appointed a close professional associate of miers and an outspoken property-rights activist to the three-person panel that determined how much the state should pay.

the resulting six-figure payout to the miers family in 2000 was despite the state’s objections to the "excessive” amount and to the process used to set the price. the panel recommended paying nearly $5 a square foot for land that was valued at less than 30 cents a square foot.