AUSTIN -- State Supreme Court Judge Nathan L. Hecht has decided that the taxpayers of Texas should pay for defending his support last year of Harriet Miers for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hecht was sanctioned by the state's judicial conduct commission last May for allegedly improperly using his official position to support the nomination of Miers, a personal friend, to the nation's highest court.

The accusations included that Hecht conducted over 120 media interviews supporting Miers. Hecht said his support of Miers was of public interest and therefore not misconduct.

On appeal, a special review court last October lifted the sanction against Hecht and ruled that the conduct code needs clarification, the AP reported today.

Hecht claims he ran up a legal bill of $340,000 appealing the sanction and now wants to be reimbursed by the state. "I don't think you should be out-of-pocket when you didn't do anything wrong," he told the AP.

Hecht last week asked Republican State Rep. Tony Goolsby to introduce legislation allowing judges who successfully appeal judicial conduct sanctions between 2006 and 2008 to receive legal fees from the state. Hecht is the only Texas judge who would qualify for such a reimbursement.

Miers, who was White House counsel at the time of her nomination, eventually removed her name from consideration after a firestorm of conservative criticism. She has since left the White House staff.

The commission's costs in sanctioning Hecht amounted to around $5,000, the AP reported.