Forty years ago today, Edwin Meese III took the oath of office as the United States' 75th attorney general. Gary Lawson and I argue in a new book, The Meese Revolution: The Making of a Constitutional Moment, that Ed Meese was the most influential attorney general in American history. It is impossible to understand modern law without understanding Ed Meese's role and influence in shaping it. The rise of originalism, the rediscovery of separation of powers and federalism, and even the respectability of taking the Constitution's text seriously all trace to Ed Meese and his tenure at the Department of Justice.
Here are three lessons our new Attorney General, Pam Bondi, could take from Ed Meese's success.
First, it is critical to understand that ideas have consequences. In the long run, the success of a Department of Justice is not measured by its short-term litigation victories but by the ideas that it plants, even if those ideas do not take immediate root. President Ronald Reagan and his Attorney General Ed Meese understood this in a big way.
