Edwin Meese

Infobox US Cabinet official
name=Edwin Meese III


order=75th
title=United States Attorney General
term_start=February 25, 1985
term_end=July 5, 1988
predecessor=William French Smith
successor=Dick Thornburgh
birth_date=birth date and age|1931|12|2
birth_place= Oakland, California
death_date=
death_place=
party= Republican
spouse=
profession=
religion= Lutheran

Edwin "Ed" Meese III (born December 2, 1931 in Oakland, California) served as the seventy-fifth Attorney General of the United States (1985-1988).

Education/staff of Governor Reagan

In 1953, Meese graduated from Yale University, where he was a president of the Yale Political Union. He holds a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley and served in the United States Army from 1954 to 1956. Meese later attained the rank of Colonel in the United States Army Reserve.

He worked as assistant district attorney of Alameda County, California before joining Governor Ronald Reagan's staff in 1967. He served as legal affairs secretary from 1967-1968 and as executive assistant and chief of staff to Governor Reagan from 1969 through 1974.

As Reagan's chief of staff, Meese was instrumental in the decision to crack down on student protesters at People's Park in Berkeley, California, on May 15, 1969. Meese was widely criticized for escalating official response to the People's Park protest, during which law enforcement officers killed one protestor and seriously injured hundreds of others, many of whom were bystanders. Meese advised Reagan to declare a state of emergency in Berkeley, contrary to the recommendation of the Berkeley City Council, which led to a two-week occupation of the city by National Guard troops.

Industry and academia

From January 1975 to May 1976, he was vice president for administration of Rohr Industries in Chula Vista, California. He left Rohr to enter private law practice in San Diego County, California. He served as a professor of law at the University of San Diego from 1977 to 1981, and also was director of the Center for Criminal Justice Policy and Management.

Reagan presidency

Meese headed Reagan's transition effort following the 1980 election. During the presidential campaign, he served as chief of staff and senior issues adviser for the Reagan-Bush committee. After Reagan's election, he became Counselor to the President, member of the President's Cabinet and the National Security Council from 1981 to 1985. Judge Lowell Jenson was the second-ranking official in the Justice Department under Meese.

U.S. Attorney General

Meese became Attorney General in February 1985, holding this office until August, 1988.

Iran-Contra

Meese's tenure was highly controversial. His involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair as a "counselor" and "friend" to the President, not as the nation's chief law enforcement officer, attracted the most criticism. Chapter 31 of the official Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters reveals his direct involvement:

Meese knew that the 1985 HAWK transaction, in which the National Security Council staff and the Central Intelligence Agency were directly involved without a presidential covert-action Finding authorizing their involvement, raised serious legal questions. The President was potentially exposed to charges of illegal conduct if he was knowledgeable of the shipment and had not reported it to Congress, under the requirements of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and in the absence of a Finding.... When Meese got answers in his inquiry that did not support his defense of the President, he apparently ignored them, as he did with Secretary of State George P. Shultz's revelation on November 22 that the President had told him that he had known of the HAWK shipment in advance. [http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_31.htm]

upreme Court views

Meese also became the subject of deep controversy when he gave a speech calling for a "jurisprudence of original intent" in 1985 and criticizing the Supreme Court for straying from the original intention of the U.S. Constitution. Meese's speech was publicly rebuked by sitting Supreme Court Justices William J. Brennan and John Paul Stevens in speeches later that year, in a dispute that foreshadowed the contentious Robert Bork hearings of 1987. It has also been alleged that Meese subjected nominees for federal judgeships to a "litmus test" to gauge their fidelity to Reagan Administration judicial policy, including whether the nominee believed that "Roe v. Wade" had been correctly decided; Meese has repeatedly denied this.

Meese Report

On May 21, 1984, Reagan announced his intention to appoint the Attorney General to study the effect of pornography on society [ [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=39953 Remarks on Signing the Child Protection Act of 1984] , The American Presidency Project.] . The Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, often called the Meese Commission, convened in the spring of 1985 and published its findings in July 1986. The Meese Report advised that pornography was in varying degrees harmful [ [http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Meese+v.+playboy-a04328734 Meese v. Playboy] , "National Review", September 26, 1986.] .

Fellowships

Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative think tank.

Adjunct Fellow at the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank that is most widely known for its work promoting Intelligent design and inspiring the Intelligent Design movement.

Chairman of the [http://claremont.org/projects/jurisprudence/advisors01212006.html Board of Advisors] of the [http://claremont.org/projects/jurisprudence/ Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence] , the public interest law firm affiliated with the Claremont Institute.

Serves on the Board of Directors of the Junior State of America, a nationally-recognized non-partisan youth organization that aims to help high school students acquire policy knowledge and oratorical skills to prepare them for leadership later in life.

Served on the Executive Committee (1994) and as president (1996) of the Council for National Policy (CNP), a forum that was formed in 1981 by Tim LaHaye as a networking tool for leading US conservative political leaders, financiers and religious right activist leaders.

Served as co-chairman of the Constitution Project's bipartisan Sentencing Committee. [http://www.constitutionproject.org/sentencing/members.cfm?categoryId=7]

Ed Meese is also on the Board of Directors for the Capital Research Center, a conservative think tank devoted to the research of non-profit groups

Writings

*"Judicial Tyranny: The New Kings of America?" - contributing author (Amerisearch, 2005) ISBN 0-9753455-6-7

The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, ISBN 1-59698-001-X

"With Reagan", 1992, Regnery Gateway, 0-89526-522-2

ee also

*Attorney General's Commission on Pornography

References

External links

* [http://www.nndb.com/people/462/000023393/ Edwin Meese profile, NNDB]
* [http://www.porn-report.com/ Attorney General's Commission on Pornography]
* [http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_31.htm Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters - U.S. Court of Appeals]