WASHINGTON (By Timothy Williams, NYTimes) October 3, 2005 —  President Bush nominated Harriet E. Miers, the White House counsel, as his choice to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor this morning, his second nominee for the Supreme Court in the past two and half months.

Ms. Miers, 60, a longtime confidante of the president's, has never been a judge, and therefore lacks a long history of judicial rulings that could reveal ideological tendencies. Her positions on such ideologically charged issues as abortion and affirmative action are not clear.

Many of President Bush's allies had lobbied the president to choose a conservative justice to replace Justice O'Connor, a key swing vote on the court, in order to place a conservative stamp on the court for years to come. Democrats in the Senate however, have warned that a conservative pick to replace a moderate justice would lead to a drawn-out partisan battle.

In making the announcement at the White House, Mr. Bush said of Ms. Miers, "She has devoted her life to the rule of law and the cause of justice." He added that Ms. Miers, "will not legislate from the bench."

The president said that while considering his choice in recent days, Ms. Miers had "stood out as being exceptionally well-suited" to replace the retiring Justice O'Connor.

He urged the Senate to take up her nomination "promptly."

In brief remarks during the announcement, a beaming Ms. Miers said she had a duty to "ensure the courts meet their obligation to strictly apply" the constitution and to adhere to "the founders' vision of the court."

In choosing Ms. Miers as his nominee, Mr. Bush once again signaled the importance he places on personal loyalty and familiarity. Ms. Miers has served in a number of posts for the president, and at one point was his personal lawyer.

If Ms. Miers is confirmed by the Senate, she would be the third woman to serve on the nation's highest court - after Justice O'Connor and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who currently sits on the court. She was a leading candidate in the search for Justice O'Connor's successor, and was also part of the White House team that led Mr. Bush to Judge John G. Roberts Jr., who was confirmed by the Senate as chief justice last week and begins work today on the Supreme Court's new term.

Her elevation to the court along with Chief Justice Roberts would add an unknown judicial element to the nine-justice body. Ms. Miers lacks a track record that would shed light on her views, and Justice Roberts declined to be specific about his views on several key issues during his recent Senate confirmation hearings.

If confirmed, Ms. Miers would be the first justice with no previous experience on the bench since President Nixon nominated William H. Rehnquist, then an assistant attorney general, as associate justice in 1972. He was elevated to chief justice in 1986 by President Reagan. Chief Justice Rehnquist died last month, prompting Mr. Bush to nominate Chief Justice Roberts as his replacement. The president had originally nominated Mr. Roberts in mid-July to replace Justice O'Connor.

The president had signaled his desire to name a woman or a member of a minority group to the Supreme Court last week when in response to a question about how close he was to choosing a successor, he said "diversity is one of the strengths of the country."

Ms. Miers was the first woman to become a partner at a major Texas law firm and the first woman to be president of the State Bar of Texas. In 1995, Mr. Bush, then governor of Texas, named her chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission and gave her the task of cleaning up that scandal-plagued agency.

Ms. Miers has also served Mr. Bush in the posts of assistant to the president, staff secretary and as deputy chief of staff. Previously, she had been co-managing partner at Locke Liddell & Sapp, a 400-member Texas law firm, and when that merged with another Texas law firm to form Locke, Purnell, Rain & Harrell, she became president of the new firm.

She was the first woman elected as president of the Texas state bar in 1992, and the first female to be president of the Dallas Bar Association in 1985. Ms. Miers, who received her bachelor's and law degrees from Southern Methodist University, was also an at-large member of the Dallas City Council.

In 1996, Mr. Bush described her as being "a pit bull in Size 6 shoes."

Mr. Bush said this morning that the White House had consulted 80 senators to seek names in the selection process. But last week, Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat who is on the judiciary panel, said that it was "consultation in name only" and that Ms. Miers called him to ask for suggestions in a conversation that lasted less than five minutes.

"There is no back and forth," he said. "It's just, 'Give us some names.' I said to her, 'Look, I'd like to know who the president is considering.' And she didn't say anything."

Among others who were reportedly considered by the White House were Judge Edith Brown Clement of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales; Larry D. Thompson, a former deputy attorney general and now general counsel of Pepsico in Purchase, N.Y.; and Judge Karen J. Williams of Orangeburg, S.C., who sits on the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

In recent days, the White House reshuffled its list to try to avoid a contentious confirmation process in the Senate. Many senators who voted for Justice Roberts said they would use different criteria in evaluating Justice O'Conner's replacement.

"It is going to be different," Senator Lincoln Chafee, Republican of Rhode Island, said last week. Senator Chafee is socially liberal and voted to confirm Judge Roberts.

Mr. Chafee said he planned to apply a more skeptical standard to the next nominee because of the balance of the court and might even oppose a jurist similar to Judge Roberts. "I will be looking very carefully," he said, at the next nominee's views on privacy rights, separation of church and state and the scope of federal power.

On the conservative side of the party, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas has said he would vote against a nominee who was not "solid and known" on cultural issues like abortion, same-sex marriage and religion in public life.

"If the president doesn't nominate a solid nominee, that is going counter to what he campaigned on," Mr. Brownback said, before this morning's nomination announcement. And if such a nominee "involves a contentious battle, then let it be."