Editing Edwin Meese (section)

== Reagan presidency ==
{{Conservatism US|jurists}}
=== Presidential campaign and transition ===
Following the [[Iowa]] caucuses, Meese joined the [[Ronald Reagan presidential campaign, 1980|1980 Reagan presidential campaign]] full-time as chief of staff in charge of day-to-day campaign operations and senior issues adviser.<ref name=Wirthlin>{{cite book |title=The Greatest Communicator: What Ronald Reagan Taught Me About Politics |last=Wirthlin |first=Dick |author-link=Richard Wirthlin |author2=Wynton C. Hall |year=2004 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |location=Hoboken, NJ |isbn=978-0471736486 |page=45}}</ref> After the [[U.S. presidential election, 1980|1980 election]], Meese headed [[Presidential transition of Ronald Reagan|Reagan's transition effort]].

At the advice of Meese, Reagan secretly allowed his campaign to establish a transition office to avoid difficulties similar to those faced by the [[Presidency of Richard Nixon|Nixon administration]] in its [[Presidential transition of Richard Nixon|transition]] following the [[1968 United States presidential election|1969 election]]. "Ed had an uncanny ability to look down the road," said Pen James, [[Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel]]. Meese's presidential transition team employed more than 1,000 individuals, with 311 being paid in federal funds, 331 working for a "token" $1, and the rest serving as volunteers. When accounting for inflation, the Reagan transition team spent slightly less money than the Carter transition team, $1.75 million versus $1.78 million.<ref name="Edwards"/><!-- There was actually quite a bit of inflation from 1976 to 1980 so if the Carter transition cost $1.78 million accounting for inflation, it cost about $1.2 million without inflation, which means that Reagan spent less than Carter only if you account for inflation, not even if you account for inflation, which would imply that Reagan spent less in both absolute and relative terms, rather than only in relative terms.  -->

=== Counselor to the President ===
[[File:President Ronald Reagan meeting with Ed Meese.jpg|thumb|left|Meese with [[President of the United States|President]] [[Ronald Reagan]] in the [[Oval Office]] in October 1981]]
[[File:James Baker, Edwin Meese, and Michael Deaver.jpg|thumb|"[[Troika (triumvirate)|The Troika]]": Chief of staff [[James Baker]], Counselor to the president Meese, and Deputy chief of staff [[Michael Deaver]] at the [[White House]] in December 1981]]
On November 17, 1980, Meese and [[James Baker]] held a meeting to divide their list of [[White House]] responsibilities, since both saw the potential for future conflict because of their positions being somewhat similar in nature. The one-page memorandum listed Meese's responsibilities as:
* "Counselor to the President for Policy (with cabinet rank);
* member Super Cabinet Executive Committee (in absence of the President and V-P preside over meetings);
* participate as a principal in all meetings of full Cabinet;
* coordination and supervision of responsibilities of the Secretary to the Cabinet; *coordination and supervision of work of the Domestic Policy Studies and the National Security Council;
* with Baker coordination and supervision of work of OMB, CEA, CEQ, Trade Rep and S&T; *participation as principal in all policy group meetings;
* attend any meeting which Pres attends – w/his consent."<ref>{{cite book |title=The Acting President |last=Schieffer |first=Bob |author2=Gary Paul Gates |year=1990 |publisher=Plume |isbn=978-0525485797 |page=83}}</ref>

Meese became Counselor to the President, who appointed him as a member of both his [[United States Cabinet|Cabinet]] and the [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]] from 1981 to 1985. On Monday, September 14, 1981, Meese chaired the first White House discussion of what would become Reagan's [[Strategic Defense Initiative]] (SDI), the missile defense program.<ref name="Edwards" />

Meese served as a liaison to the [[Christian right|conservative evangelical]] community, arranging for meetings between social conservative leaders and the president. Meese was lauded by social conservatives for his address to the Congress on the Bible in March 1982, when he said, "Someone has estimated that throughout the course of history man has adopted over four billion laws. It seems to me, with all that effort, we haven't improved one iota on the Ten Commandments."<ref name=Hoover>{{cite journal |last=Meese |first=Edwin |title=Papers of Edwin Meese II |journal=Stanford University}}</ref>

Near the end of Reagan's presidency, Meese's involvement in the [[Iran–Contra affair]] as a counselor and friend to Reagan was scrutinized by the independent counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, which stated in its official report that Meese's knowledge of the 1985 HAWK transaction "raised serious legal questions".<ref>{{cite web |title=Walsh Iran / Contra Report |url=https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_31.htm |date=November 1986 |publisher=[[Federation of American Scientists]] |access-date=August 24, 2009 |archive-date=June 1, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090601074057/http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_31.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Meese was considered a powerful and influential figure in the [[White House]]. Former Reagan advisor and journalist [[David Gergen]] said, "He's a tremendously influential and highly valued adviser to the President who advises on issues all across the board. He's one of the men who has known [the President] so long and so well he's become almost an alter ego of Ronald Reagan."<ref name="Edwards" />

===Comments on hunger in America===
Meese created a storm of controversy in December 1983 after his responses to questions about hunger in America. In response to a question about balancing spending cuts against the need to feed hungry children, he said that he had seen no "authoritative" evidence that children in America were going hungry and that some of the allegations "are purely political." When asked about soup kitchens, he said that "some people are going to soup kitchens voluntarily.... I know we've had considerable information that people go to soup kitchens because the food is free and that that's easier than paying for it." 

Democratic leaders and social welfare activists called his comments "disgraceful," "an outrage," "unkind," "mean-spirited," and "absolutely ridiculous". [[Tip O'Neill]], the [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker of the House of Representatives]], compared Meese to [[Ebenezer Scrooge]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/10/us/comments-by-meese-on-hunger-produce-a-storm-of-controversy.html |title=Comments by Meese on Hunger Produce a Storm of Controversy |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 10, 1983 |access-date=July 24, 2014 |author=Robert D. McFadden |archive-date=August 8, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808212944/http://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/10/us/comments-by-meese-on-hunger-produce-a-storm-of-controversy.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/17/politics/17meese.html |title=Meese's Influence Looms in Today's Judicial Wars |newspaper=The New York Times |date=August 17, 2005 |access-date=July 24, 2014 |author=Lynette Clemetson |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402014202/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/17/politics/17meese.html |url-status=live }}</ref> 

Shortly after, Meese offered a tongue-in-cheek defense of Scrooge, saying that he "had his faults, but he wasn't unfair to anyone" and that he suffered from "a bad press".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/16/us/meese-assails-myth-that-reagan-has-weak-record-on-poor.html |title=Meese Assails 'Myth' that Reagan has Weak Record on Poor |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 16, 1983 |access-date=July 24, 2014 |author=Francis X. Clines |archive-date=August 8, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808214457/http://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/16/us/meese-assails-myth-that-reagan-has-weak-record-on-poor.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Boca Raton News">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1291&dat=19831216&id=0FpUAAAAIBAJ&pg=2810,5409634 |title=Edwin Meese finds soul-mate in Scrooge |newspaper=Boca Raton News |date=December 16, 1983 |access-date=July 24, 2014 |archive-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119194447/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1291&dat=19831216&id=0FpUAAAAIBAJ&pg=2810,5409634 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{YouTube|4cWxFb1uNM|Edwin Meese defends hunger remarks, Ebenezer Scrooge (1983)}}</ref>

===Attorney General===
Reagan nominated Meese to be [[William French Smith]]'s successor as [[United States Attorney General|U.S. Attorney General]] on January 23, 1984.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal85-1147784|title=CQ Almanac Online Edition|website=library.cqpress.com|access-date=February 6, 2017|archive-date=January 19, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119194449/https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/login.php?requested=%2Fcqalmanac%2Fdocument.php%3Fid%3Dcqal85-1147784|url-status=live}}</ref> For more than a year, Democrats repeatedly charged Meese with unethical conduct to bar his confirmation as attorney general, including a report by [[Archibald Cox]] to the [[United States Senate|Senate]], which alleged that Meese had a "lack of ethical sensitivity" and "blindness to abuse of position".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/19/us/common-cause-bids-senate-vote-against-meese.html|last=Warner|first=Leslie Maitland|title=Common Cause Bids Senate Vote against Meese|work=The New York Times|date=December 19, 1994|page=A19|access-date=May 6, 2016|archive-date=June 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624130909/http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/19/us/common-cause-bids-senate-vote-against-meese.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Meese was finally confirmed by a vote of 63–31, with more opposition than any other Attorney General nominee had received since the 1920s. He began serving as Attorney General in February 1985.<ref>{{Cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/24/us/senate-approves-meese-to-become-attorney-general.html|title = Senate Approves Meese to Become Attorney General|newspaper = The New York Times|date = February 24, 1985|last1 = Werner|first1 = Leslie Maitland|access-date = February 7, 2017|archive-date = February 7, 2017|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170207041439/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/24/us/senate-approves-meese-to-become-attorney-general.html|url-status = live}}</ref>

In 1985, Meese received ''[[Government Executive]] magazine's annual award for excellence in management for his service in this role.<ref name="Leadership" />

====Bechtel scandal====
In the mid-1980s, there was a federal investigation into Meese's connections and alleged financial improprieties related to his efforts to help the [[Bechtel]] Corporation build a pipeline in [[Iraq]]. The pipeline was to extend from Iraq to [[Jordan]] and was negotiated by Meese, [[Shimon Peres]], [[Bruce Rappaport]], [[Robert C. McFarlane]], and others. A report by special prosecutor [[James C. McKay]] cleared Meese of criminal wrongdoing but criticized him for ethical lapses, especially regarding bribes to [[Israel]] not to attack an Iraqi oil pipeline that benefited associates of Meese.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/24/world/meese-and-the-pipeline-the-story-so-far.html Meese and the Pipeline: The Story So Far] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170314112819/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/24/world/meese-and-the-pipeline-the-story-so-far.html |date=March 14, 2017 }} New York Times. February 24, 1988.</ref>

====Iran-Contra scandal====
{{Further|Iran-Contra affair}}
In the late-1980s, Meese was investigated for his role in covering up the [[Iran-Contra affair]] to limit damage to Reagan.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/iran-contra-affairs.php |work=[[Brown University]] |title=Understanding the Iran-Contra Affairs |access-date=January 3, 2020 |archive-date=December 13, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213212721/https://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/iran-contra-affairs.php |url-status=live }}</ref> Although evidence supporting this accusation came to light, Meese was ultimately not charged with any obstruction.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/profile-meese.php |work=[[Brown University]] |title=Understanding the Iran-Contra Affairs: Edwin Meese III |access-date=January 3, 2020 |archive-date=January 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200119091350/https://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/profile-meese.php |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Wedtech scandal====
{{Main|Wedtech scandal}}
In February 1987, James C. McKay was named independent counsel in the [[Wedtech scandal|Wedtech case]]. The investigation centered on actions Meese took that benefited him and his longtime friend and former lawyer, E. Robert Wallach. McKay looked into Meese's involvement, while Attorney General, in negotiations involving the company Wedtech. (E. Robert Wallach worked as a lobbyist for the company and sought help from Meese on Wedtech contract matters.)<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-08-09-mn-107-story.html |title=Wallach Found Guilty of Racketeering, Fraud: Meese's Friend, Two Others Convicted in Wedtech Scandal |date=August 9, 1989 |first=Robert L. |last=Jackson |author2=John J. Goldman |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=February 18, 2010 |archive-date=January 11, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111153208/http://articles.latimes.com/1989-08-09/news/mn-107_1_wedtech-scandal |url-status=live }}</ref>

McKay never prosecuted or sought indictment of Meese, but in his official report, which is still confidential, he was highly critical of Meese's ethics and urged further investigation of Meese's role in that scandal and others such as Meese's efforts to help [[Bechtel Corporation]]. Meese described it as a "full vindication". While Meese was never convicted of any wrongdoing, he resigned in 1988 when the independent counsel delivered the report on Wedtech.<ref>{{cite news|title=Atty. Gen. Meese Resigns : Says He's Been Cleared and Leaves With Clean Name : Acts After Prosecutor Files Report|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-07-05-mn-5430-story.html|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=July 5, 1988|access-date=July 5, 2011|archive-date=November 7, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107122401/http://articles.latimes.com/1988-07-05/news/mn-5430_1_meese-resigns|url-status=live}}</ref>

Prior to his resignation, several top Justice Department officials resigned in protest of what they and others viewed as improper acts by the Attorney General.<ref>[{{cite news|title=Two Meese Aides Resign After Urging Ouster|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-03-30-8803040785-story.html|work=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=March 30, 1988|access-date=May 1, 2019|archive-date=May 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190501192209/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-03-30-8803040785-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Reagan publicly voiced support for Meese in his role as Attorney General, during a press conference: "If Ed Meese is not a good man, there are no good men." That was in response to questions about his actions at the Justice Department.<ref name=Leadership>{{cite web |url=http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/breakfast/bio.cfm?speaker=10964 |title=Speaker Bio: Edwin Meese |publisher=[[The Leadership Institute]] |access-date=May 14, 2013 |archive-date=March 14, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314142115/http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/breakfast/bio.cfm?speaker=10964 |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Meese Report====
{{Main|Meese Report}}
On May 21, 1984, Reagan announced his intention to appoint the Attorney General to study the effect of [[pornography]] on society.<ref>[http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=39953 Remarks on Signing the Child Protection Act of 1984] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011231057/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=39953 |date=October 11, 2008 }}, The American Presidency Project.</ref> The [[Meese Report]], convened in the spring of 1985 and published its findings in July 1986. The Meese Report advised that pornography was in varying degrees harmful.<ref>[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Meese+v.+playboy-a04328734 Meese v. Playboy]{{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, ''[[National Review]]'', September 26, 1986.</ref> Following the release of the report, guidelines of the Meese-led Department of Justice were modified to enable the government to file multiple cases in various jurisdictions at the same time which eroded some of the markets for pornography.<ref>Alberta, Tim. (November–December 2018).  "How the GOP Gave Up on Porn". [https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/11/11/republican-party-anti-pornography-politics-222096 Politico website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181111171709/https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/11/11/republican-party-anti-pornography-politics-222096 |date=November 11, 2018 }} Retrieved November 11, 2018.</ref>

==== Drug control policy ====
As Attorney General, Meese chaired the National Drug Policy Board, which coordinated with [[Nancy Reagan]]'s "[[Just Say No]]," national anti-drug educational campaign. One of Meese's innovations was to seek the cooperation of drug-producing countries.

"One of our most effective weapons against drug traffickers," Meese wrote in his autobiography, "was to confiscate the assets of their criminal activity, such as expensive autos, yachts, businesses and homes.... To make this technique even more effective, we shared the proceeds with cooperating local law enforcement agencies to enhance their drug-fighting activities."<ref name=Meese>{{cite book |title=With Reagan: The Inside Story |last=Meese |first=Edwin |year=1992 |publisher=[[Regnery Gateway]] |isbn=978-0895265227 |page=[https://archive.org/details/withreaganinside00mees_0/page/309 309] |url=https://archive.org/details/withreaganinside00mees_0/page/309 |url-access=registration }}</ref>

====Supreme Court views====
In 1985, Meese delivered a speech calling for a "jurisprudence of original intent"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Speech to the American Bar Association |url=https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/speech-to-the-american-bar-association/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=Teaching American History |language=en-US}}</ref> and criticizing the [[United States Supreme Court|Supreme Court]] for straying from the original intention of the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]]. Justices [[William J. Brennan]] and [[John Paul Stevens]] disagreed with Meese publicly later that year. The dispute foreshadowed the contentious [[Robert Bork]] hearings of 1987.

Meese was known for his opposition to the [[Miranda Warning]] ruling by the Supreme Court, which required a suspect's rights to be read to him before he is questioned by authorities.<ref name="N&WR">{{cite news |title=Justice under Reagan: Reagan seeks judges with 'traditional approach' (interview) |date=October 14, 1985 |work=[[U.S. News & World Report]] |volume=99 |issue=1 |pages=67 |issn=0041-5537}}</ref>
{{quotation|'''''[[U.S News & World Report]]''''': You criticize the Miranda ruling, which gives suspects the right to have a lawyer present before police questioning. Shouldn't people, who may be innocent, have such protection?<br>
'''Meese''': Suspects who are innocent of a crime should. But the thing is, you don't have many suspects who are innocent of a crime. That's contradictory. If a person is innocent of a crime, then he is not a suspect.<ref name="N&WR" />}}