2nd Circuit Judge Roger J. Miner, 77, dead

HUDSON -- Roger J. Miner, a federal appeals court judge in Manhattan for nearly three decades who was among the final candidates President Ronald Reagan considered for the Supreme Court, died Saturday. He was 77.

Paul Silver, a federal prosecutor who once clerked for Miner, said he died of heart failure at his Hudson home.

"He was an incredibly brilliant man," said Silver, who was a law clerk for Miner from 1982 to 1984. "He was totally devoted to the law as much as he was to his family and friends. . . . He was working right up to the last days of his life."

Reagan appointed Miner to the federal bench in Albany in 1981. He was elevated to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1985 and he took senior status in 1997, enabling him to be more selective about his cases.

His wife, Jacqueline, recalled he was one of three finalists for a position on the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987. She said he did not hide his support for a woman's right to choose whether to have an abortion when the subject was raised by those helping the president narrow his choices.

"I screamed at him," Jacqueline Miner recalled after hearing him boldly pronounce his position on the subject when she thought it might have been wiser to mask his feelings about it. "He said, 'My reputation is too big a price to pay for a seat on the Supreme Court.' "

Jacqueline Miner, a former vice chairman of the New York State Republican Party, said her husband was never bitter about falling just short of the nation's highest court. "He was such a humble man. He never held a grudge," she said.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who clerked for Miner, called him "one of the finest jurists in the country."

"I feel blessed to call him a personal friend and mentor who not only taught me clear legal analysis, but also inspired me with his great love of public service," Gillibrand said.

Besides Jacqueline, his wife of 36 years, he is survived by sons Larry Miner of Santa Monica, Calif., Ronald Carmichael of Alexandria, Va., Ralph Carmichael of Phoenix, and Mark Miner of Austin, Texas; his brother Lance Miner of Greenport, six grandchildren, a nephew and a niece.