[JURIST] White House US Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers [JURIST news archive] supported affirmative action programs during her tenure as the president of the State Bar of Texas, according to a report in the Washington Post Saturday. The Post cited an interview [PDF text] Miers gave in June 1992 to the the Texas Bar Journal, as well as a President's Opinion [PDF text] she wrote later that year. In both articles she contended that racial and gender set-asides were justified to encourage the emergence of a legal community that "reflect[s] our population as a whole." The Post quoted a Bush administration spokesman who maintained that Miers' previous position on affirmative action is not an accurate predictor of how she would vote on such issues as a Supreme Court justice. Read the Post article here. Reuters has more.