Rex E. Lee

Rex Edwin Lee (February 27, 1935—March 11, 1996) from St. Johns, Arizona was a Constitutional lawyer, a law clerk for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White, and the United States Solicitor General under the Reagan administration. He argued 59 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. A Latter-day Saint (Mormon), Lee was an alumnus and the tenth president of Brigham Young University.

Life and career

Lee was the son of Mabel (née Whiting) and Rex E. Lee.^[1] He served a mission for the LDS Church in the Mexican Mission. He first met Janet Griffin, whose father was the Treasury Attaché of the US embassy in Mexico City while there. When Lee returned from his mission and enrolled at Brigham Young University he again became acquainted with Janet and they got married the following year.^[2]

Lee graduated first in his class from the University of Chicago Law School in 1963.^[3] From law school he went to Washington, DC, to serve as law clerk to Byron White, then Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. From Washington, DC, he returned to his home state of Arizona, where, as a partner in the Phoenix law firm of Jennings, Strouss & Salmon, he established himself as a lawyer of promise. Within four years of graduating from law school (and before he had taken a deposition in any lower court civil proceeding) Rex argued his first case in the United States Supreme Court. In 1972 Lee left his burgeoning legal career to become the founding dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University. He served as the first dean of the School, and is considered personally responsible for recruiting many members of the exceptional charter class.^[4]

Lee entered public service, first on the invitation of Attorney General Edward H. Levi to be an Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Division in the United States Department of Justice from 1975 to 1976,^[5] and then as Solicitor General of the United States from 1981 to 1985. As Solicitor General, Lee had the opportunity to focus on the legal effort he enjoyed most: briefing and arguing cases in the United States Supreme Court--and he found great success in doing it. During his time as Solicitor General, Rex Lee won 23 of the 30 cases he argued during President Ronald Reagan's first term.^[6] In addition, Lee built a unique and enduring reputation as a man committed to principle.^[6] At one point, while being criticized for taking somewhat unpopular stances that might have been at odds with the administration under which he serve, Rex Lee would respond: "I'm the solicitor general, not the pamphleteer general."^[6][3] At the time of his death, in a hospital bed, he was preparing to argue his 60th case before the Court.^[4]

After resigning as Solicitor General, Rex Lee returned to Brigham Young University in 1986. Shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with cancer. Following a year of medical treatment and therapy, Lee recovered, for a time, and was named president of BYU. It appears he only accepted the post as president on the condition that he would still be able to argue cases before the Supreme Court in his spare time (and did so on nine occasions).^[6] He served the university community with distinction from July 1, 1989 through December 31, 1995, leaving the position two and one-half months before he died.

Current U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito served as an assistant to Solicitor General Lee from 1981 to 1985, where Alito argued 12 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Rex E. Lee's son, Mike Lee, later became a law clerk to Justice Alito, then a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and in 2011 became a United States Senator from Utah. Rex E. Lee was a first cousin of Mo Udall and Stewart Udall.

Having been an avid runner throughout his life (he was chosen to be Solicitor General just two days after completing the Boston Marathon),^[3] an annual race is held in his honor at BYU to raise proceeds for cancer research.^[7]

Lee and his wife Janet had seven children.

See also

Biography portal

• Lee-Hamblin family

References

Specific references:

General references:

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (November 2008)

External links

• A Concurrent Resolution on the Death of Rex E. Lee from the Arizona State Legislature website
• Supreme Court Justices Pay Tribute to the Late Rex E. Lee from the Brigham Young University website
• Loving Rex Lee, A Personal Remembrance from the Brigham Young University website
• Rex E. Lee Law Society at the University of Virginia
• A Lawyer Looks at Rex Lee, by Dr. James McClellan, which appeared in the March–April 1984 Edition of Benchmark Magazine

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