President Bush is facing criticism for citing religion as a reason why he selected his personal attorney and friend, Harriet Miers, to be nominated for a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court. “People are interested to know why I picked Harriet Miers. They want to know Harriet Miers’ background,” Bush told reporters Wednesday. “They want to know as much as they possibly can before they form opinions. And part of Harriet Miers’ life is her religion.” Democratic Senator Richard Durbin, who serves on the Judiciary Committee, responded by saying “The White House is basically saying that because of Harriet Miers’s religious beliefs, you can trust her.” Bush’s comments came on the same day that the influential evangelical leader James Dobson, of Focus on the Family, revealed that President Bush’s top advisor Karl Rove spoke with him about Miers on October 1 — two days before Bush nominated her. Dobson said Rove told him “she is from a very conservative church, which is almost universally pro-life.” Dobson denied that Rove gave him any assurances that Miers would vote to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. Kermit Hall, editor of the “Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States,” said ” I cannot think of any president who has ever made a nomination because of the religious beliefs that a person held.”