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The Meese Revolution

The Making of a Constitutional Moment

(amazon)

Steven Gow Calabresi and Gary Lawson (View Bio)
Hardcover: Encounter Books, 2024.

The Meese Revolution
(amazon)

Edwin Meese III is the most influential person ever to hold the office of U.S. Attorney General–and almost no one knows it. Ed Meese was at the center of virtually every major accomplishment of Ronald Reagan’s transformative presidency, from winning the Cold War without firing a shot to the economic boom that by the end of the 1980s was the envy of the world. More to the point for this book, Ed Meese is the person most responsible for the rise of constitutional originalism, which treats the text and original meaning of the Constitution rather than the policy fads of the moment as authoritative law.

 

In 2024, originalism is a major force in the courts, with a majority of Supreme Court justices and a raft of lower-court and state-court judges at least taking it seriously as a major contributor to decision-making. That result was unthinkable in 1985 when Meese took office and originalism was essentially unknown to the legal academy and almost wholly absent from the judicial process. Ed Meese turned the U.S. Department of Justice into “the academy in exile,” where originalism was developed, refined, theorized, and put into practice.  This book, with a foreword by Mark R. Levin, describes the rise of originalism, which necessitates telling the story of Ed Meese, without whom it surely does not happen. Meese’s story threads through virtually all important legal and policy events of the 1980s, many of which continue to shape the world of the twenty-first century. We are still living through the Meese Revolution. @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-469750017 -1040178053 9 0 511 0;}@font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:0 0 5 0 0 0 0 2 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1342185562 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}p.MsoNoSpacing, li.MsoNoSpacing, div.MsoNoSpacing {mso-style-priority:1; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}

"Every political appointee in the new administration across all agencies and departments and the 115,000 career employees who work for DOJ ought to read this stellar intellectual history of the Meese era at Justice. Certainly, every serious member of the Federalist Society will, and every member of every law school faculty ought to do so (but won’t, as the legal academy largely recoils from 'originalism' and won’t be much interested in the man primarily responsible for its ascendency and what proponents hope is it’s unfolding triumph).... If you pass this book by, you will be missing out on the easiest hack to so many legal controversies that have broken into the headlines since Ronald Reagan took the White House from Jimmy Carter. And you will be missing a wonderfully complete portrait of an indispensable public servant and aide to Reagan. Meese is the equal of anyone in any administration in modern times when it comes to character and modesty, generosity of spirit, and resolve to keep the Constitution at the center of our Republic’s functioning. Do read it." — Hugh Hewitt, The Washington Free Beacon  (Read the full review)

"One of the most important speeches of the Reagan presidency was not delivered by the Great Communicator himself. In the summer of 1985, Edwin Meese III—confirmed a few months earlier as the Reagan administration’s second attorney general—appeared at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting. There he declared that under his leadership, the Department of Justice would “resurrect the original meaning of constitutional provisions and statutes as the only reliable guide for judgment.” As Steven Gow Calabresi and Gary Lawson argue in The Meese Revolution: The Making of a Constitutional Moment, this address proved to be the clarion call for a movement that reformed the federal judiciary, an accomplishment that rates among the most significant conservative victories of the past half century. Calabresi and Lawson show that Meese served many important roles in his long career, but his influence in bringing what we now know as originalism into the legal mainstream was his greatest accomplishment.... A treasure trove for anyone interested in constitutional law or the inner workings of the Reagan administration. Edwin Meese III is an enormously consequential man who made invaluable contributions to Reagan’s presidency and our legal system. Calabresi and Lawson do a great service by introducing him to more Americans." — Christopher J. Scalia, Commentary

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