Edwin Meese

Military service

At Yale, Meese was a member of ROTC. Upon graduating in 1953, he obtained a commission in the U.S. Army as a Second Lieutenant. He spent 24 months at Fort Sill near Lawton, Oklahoma. Meese worked in logistics, conducting installation and operations of the 240 mm howitzer M1. Meese completed active duty in 1956 and continued in the U.S. Army Reserve, specializing in military intelligence. Meese retired from the Army Reserve as a colonel in 1984.

California governor's office

Meese joined Ronald Reagan's gubernatorial staff in 1967 as legal affairs secretary, serving in that role for a year, until 1968. In 1969, he became Governor Reagan's executive assistant and chief of staff, and served in that capacity until 1974. Despite his later well-known reputation of being fond of Reagan, Meese was initially reluctant to accept the appointment. "I was not particularly interested", he later said of the position.

Meese was known for his ability to explain complex ideas to Reagan in a way that often mirrored Reagan's own speaking style and mannerisms, leading Reagan biographer Lou Cannon to describe him as "Reagan's geographer".

After being named Reagan's chief of staff, Meese convinced his predecessor's deputy, Mike Deaver, to stay on with him, beginning a partnership that would last more than two decades. For his role in Reagan's office, Meese earned reluctant praise from across the aisle. Bob Moretti, a Democrat and former Democratic Speaker of the Assembly, said, "Were I in the governor's seat, I would want someone like [Ed Meese] on my side."

Berkeley protests

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 the official response to the People's Park protest, during which law enforcement officers killed one student, on his way to class, who was not a protester and injured hundreds of others, including bystanders. Meese advised Reagan to declare a state of emergency in Berkeley, contrary to the recommendation of the Berkeley City Council. That resulted in a two-week occupation of People's Park by National Guard troops.

The first governor to turn to Meese for advice on riot control was Democrat Edmund (Pat) Brown, who first telephoned Meese seeking advice on how to best handle the situation. "I told him," Meese said, "that the people in that building should be arrested and taken out of there. I told him that if they were allowed to stay, there would be another mob scene, even bigger, the next day." Meese and Deputy District Attorney Lowell Jensen later served as co-counsels in the trial of Berkeley demonstrators. Meese was recognized as one of five "Outstanding Young Men of California" by the California Junior Chamber of Commerce for his role in countering the Berkeley demonstrators. Meese's role in quelling the riots at UC Berkeley has been identified by critics and supporters as an example of a conservative law-enforcement philosophy at work.

Industry and academia

From January 1975 to May 1976, in Chula Vista, San Diego County, California, Meese served as vice president for administration of Rohr Industries, manufacturer of railcars for the San Francisco Bay Area Bay Area Rapid Transit. He left Rohr to enter private law practice in San Diego County, California.

After receiving a grant from the Sarah Scaife Foundation, Meese developed what he called "a plan for a law school center for criminal justice policy and management". The plan was accepted by the University of San Diego, a private Catholic school. From the fall of 1977 to January 1981, Meese served as professor of law at the university, where he also directed the Center for Criminal Justice Policy and Management. During the same time, Meese served as vice chairman of California's Organized Crime Control Commission and participated in the California Bar Association's criminal law section.

Supreme Court views

In 1985, Meese delivered a speech calling for a "jurisprudence of original intent" and criticizing the Supreme Court for straying from the original intention of the 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.

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?

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.

His spokesman clarified to The Washington Post that:

That is not what he intended to say. Meese believes that one is innocent until proven guilty in our system. What he was trying to say is simply that he is very concerned about the issue of truth in our system. Miranda has had an impact in terms of enabling people who would have been found guilty in a criminal trial... to go free.