Edwin Meese III (born December 2, 1931) is an American attorney, law professor, author who served as 75th United States attorney general from 1985 until 1988. A member of the Republican Party, Meese served in the Ronald Reagan administration including as counselor to the president (1981–1985), on his transition team (1980–81), and during Reagan's governorship of California (1967–1974).
Following the 1980 presidential election, Reagan considered him for the White House chief of staff position, but James Baker was chosen instead. Meese was eventually appointed and confirmed as the attorney general in 1985, a position he held until resigning in 1988 amidst the Wedtech scandal.
Previously, Meese was a member of the board of trustees of the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation until he left in 2025 as part of a high-profile series of departures following Kevin Roberts becoming president of the organization. Meese formerly was a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is a member of the national advisory board of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and a member of the board of directors of the Federalist Society. He has served on the board of Cornerstone closed-end funds.
Meese was born on December 2, 1931, in Oakland, California, the eldest of four sons born to Leone (née Feldman) and Edwin Meese, Jr. He was raised in a practicing Missouri Synod Lutheran family, of German descent. His father was an Oakland city government official, president of the Zion Lutheran Church, and served 24 years in the non-partisan office of Treasurer of Alameda County.
At age 10, Meese published along with his brothers a mimeographed neighborhood newspaper, the Weekly Herald, and used the proceeds to buy a war bond. The young Meese also rode a bicycle on a paper route and worked in a drugstore. At Oakland High School, Meese was involved in the Junior State of America and led his high school debate team to statewide championships. He was valedictorian of Oakland High School's class of 1949.
Two weeks prior to graduation, Meese was accepted to Yale University and granted a scholarship. At Yale, Meese served as president of the Yale Political Union, chairman of the Conservative Party, chairman of the Yale Debate Association, and a member of the secret society Spade and Grave. Meese made the dean's list, and graduated with a B.A. in political science in 1953.
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.
Meese returned to California, where he obtained a law degree from UC Berkeley School of Law in 1958 and was a state Moot Court champion.
He accepted a position with the district attorney's office of Alameda County, California as a law clerk. While there, he worked under district attorney J. Frank Coakley and future district attorney Delwen Lowell Jensen. Jensen received a LEAA grant to develop DALITE (District Attorney's Automated Legal Information System), a case management software program, like PROMIS (Prosecutor's Management Information System), developed by Inslaw. Meese prosecuted felony cases while maintaining a private practice on nights and weekends, where he focused on civil law. During this service, he first drew the attention of Republican State Senator Donald L. Grunsky, who would later recommend him to governor-elect Ronald Reagan.
In 1959, he married his high school sweetheart Ursula Herrick, daughter of Oakland's postmaster. Ursula would be subpoenaed in 1988 by independent counsel to investigate whether her salary with a non-profit health charity was a quid pro quo for a building lease that the Justice Department had entered, despite the building having been cited for faulty air filtration.
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."
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.
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.
Presidential campaign and transition