Supreme Court Advocate and Scholar
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, 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, Lee won 23 of the 30 cases he argued during President Ronald Reagan's first term. At the time of his death, in a hospital bed, he was preparing to argue his 60th case before the Court.
In addition, Lee built a unique and enduring reputation as a man committed to principle. Associate Justice Byron White said that Lee "was an experienced, careful, and very brainy advocate. And he was the epitome of integrity on whom we could rely for straight talk about the cases coming before the court." 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 responded: "I'm the solicitor general, not the pamphleteer general."
Lee relished the opportunity to argue before the Supreme Court. His son Mike noted that "efore and during the arguments, Rex devoted all his faculties into crafting a persuasive case. But back in his office following the argument, that pent up energy would explode into utter euphoria. Mike likens it to a kid on a sugar high. 'When he came out of there, he was just really excited to talk about it.'" In 1986, after his resignation from the Solicitor General's officer, Lee was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer, but even cancer could not keep him from the Court. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor recounted, " I remember an appearance at the court by Rex Lee . Looking very pale and weak, he had to sit on a stool for the only time I saw him do that. I think he wore a wig. But nonetheless, effective. And we were all very moved by that."
Following a year of medical treatment and therapy, Lee recovered and was named president of BYU. According to some accounts, when Lee was asked to assume the position as university president, he accepted 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). Of that time period, former Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson, said, "I'm willing to bet that even as a part-time lawyer, Rex probably had more arguments than any other attorney in private practice in that period." Unfortunately, before his tenure as university president was over, his cancer returned. Lee 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.
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