1985 July 22

Arrest Warrant Issued for Attorney General Ed Meese – For Jaywalking

 

Really! A warrant for the arrest of Attorney General Ed Meese was issued in California on this day because he never paid a $10 fine for jaywalking in 1980.

The total fine now amounted to $130.50. Meese’s brother George, head of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, said he would pay the fine for his brother.

The matter would be trivial for most Americans, but Meese and President Ronald Reagan were loud advocates of “law and order.”

Read Meese’s own story: Edwin Meese, III, With Reagan: The Inside Story (1992)

Read: Douglas Kmiec, The Attorney General’s Lawyer: Inside the Meese Justice Department (1992)

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