page_title: Edwin Meese
section_title: Counselor to the President
hierarchical_section_title: Edwin Meese / Reagan presidency / Counselor to the President
caption_attribution_description: English: President Ronald Reagan Sitting at Desk Meeting with Ed Meese in The Oval Office, 10/16/1981
context_page_description: Edwin Meese III is an American attorney, law professor, author and member of the Republican Party who served in official capacities within the Ronald Reagan Gubernatorial Administration, the Reagan Presidential Transition Team and the Reagan White House, eventually rising to hold the position of the 75th United States Attorney General, a position from which he resigned following the Wedtech scandal.
  He currently holds fellowships and chairmanships with several public policy councils and think-tanks, including the Constitution Project and the Heritage Foundation. He was also a Distinguished Visiting Fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He currently sits on the National Advisory Board of Center for Urban Renewal and Education. He is on the board of directors of The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served on the board of Cornerstone closed end funds.
context_section_description: 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."
  Meese became Counselor to the President, who appointed him as a member of both his Cabinet and the 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.
  Meese served as a liaison to the 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."
  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."
  Meese was considered a powerful and influential figure inside 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."
caption: Meese with President Ronald Reagan in 1981
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