Trump awards Medal of Freedom to former AG Edwin Meese
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump presented former Reagan Attorney General Edwin Meese III with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
“Perhaps Ed’s greatest contribution to American law has been his unwavering advocacy for the legal principle that judges must adhere to the original meaning of the Constitution, setting aside their own personal and political views,” Trump said.
In a room packed with four generations of Meese’s family, friends and fellow leaders in the conservative Heritage Foundation, Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General William Barr, Meese, 87, praised Trump for his regard for the military and for appointing judges who respect the rule of law.
“He certainly deserves it,” former Reagan aide Tom Lorentzen told the Review-Journal. “He’s the most liked of all the Reagan people. Ed was always nice to everybody,” as well as consistently conservative, thoughtful.”
Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who attended the event, said Meese would belong on a Mount Rushmore of the conservative legal community.
Laxalt told the Review-Journal that Meese once told him that Reagan wanted to appoint his grandfather, the late Sen. Paul Laxalt, R-Nevada, to the U.S. Supreme Court. Laxalt demurred, but he agreed to tour the Supreme Court with Meese.
The tour did not change the then-senator’s mind. Meese told Adam Laxalt that his grandfather declared, “It’s like a morgue in there. I think I’d go in there and die.”
In January 2016, Meese was one of many Republican stalwarts who opposed Trump’s candidacy. He wrote in the National Review that unlike his former boss, Trump’s approach “is to vigorously attack your fellow candidates, disparaging them personally and seeking to raise yourself up by dragging them down.”
But as Trump gained steam in the GOP primary and assured Republicans he would appoint what he called the right kind of judges, Meese joined other conservatives at the Heritage Foundation, where he is a fellow, in getting behind the GOP nominee. By September 2016, he had joined the Trump transition team.
Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.
