C. Boyden Gray: A Former Democrat Who Served as White House Counsel for Republican Presidents
Key Highlights :
C. Boyden Gray, a prominent conservative lawyer who served as White House counsel under George H.W. Bush and aided presidents including Ronald Reagan and Donald J. Trump, passed away on Sunday at the age of 80. Gray was a personification of the conservative legal establishment, involved in legal strategy, judicial appointments, policy, diplomacy, and fund-raising for every Republican president since Reagan.
Gray was born on February 6, 1943, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His father, Gordon Gray, was a national security adviser to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and president of the University of North Carolina. His father's father, Bowman Gray, earned a fortune as president and chairman of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
Gray studied history at Harvard College, graduating in 1964, and served in the Marine Corps Reserve. He graduated at the head of his class from the University of North Carolina's law school in 1968. He then clerked for Chief Justice Earl Warren, a standard-bearer of liberalism, and he considered himself a Democrat until the late 1970s. By then, he was a corporate lawyer at the prominent Washington firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. He said he became a Republican because he opposed the economic policies of President Jimmy Carter.
Gray reached his highest government position as White House counsel under President George H.W. Bush. He became a trusted adviser said to be able to stroll into the Oval Office whenever he liked, and he was the frequent subject of palace-intrigue news coverage about Mr. Bush’s cabinet. Yet Mr. Gray’s influence stretched beyond any particular job. Unlike other Washington conservatives of his generation, he kept in line with shifts in the political direction of the Republican Party.
In the Reagan administration, Mr. Gray — then counsel to Mr. Bush during his tenure as vice president — deemed to be burdensome. In recent years he did legal work for Donald J. Trump after the 2020 election and at the conservative law school of George Mason University — the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State.
In 2012, of “some of the most establishment Republicans around” in The New York Times featured figures like the billionaire donor David Koch, the former House majority leader Dick Armey — and Mr. Gray. At his death, he was a member of the board of the Federalist Society, the group dedicated to spreading conservative jurists across the federal bench.
From the 1980s to the 1990s, as Mr. Bush’s longest-serving senior aide, he was sometimes accused of being a and , particularly in an ill-fated effort to change government regulations around affirmative action. But he could also claim credit for a number of conservative victories. He promoted the careers of promising young conservative lawyers — including the two-time attorney general William P. Barr and the future Supreme Court justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito — and he facilitated the appointments of the two men Mr. Bush put on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas and David Souter.
He led the team of advisers for Mr. Bush who selected Mr. Thomas as a candidate to replace Justice Thurgood Marshall upon his retirement in 1991. When Anita Hill accused Mr. Thomas of sexual harassment as her supervisor at work, Mr. Gray took charge in deciding to respond , even if that meant attacking her character, The Times reported that year. Mr. Thomas was confirmed by a narrow 52-48 vote in the Senate. Mr. Souter’s appointment, in 1990, was less eventful, with the Senate voting to confirm him 90-9.
During the presidency of George W. Bush and in consultation with Mr. Bush’s chief political adviser, Karl Rove, Mr. Gray formed the Committee for Justice, which seeks to support conservative judicial nominees. He and the liberal civil rights lawyer Ralph G. Neas came to be seen as in a series of Supreme Court confirmation fights.
In 2005, when President Bush decided to appoint Mr. Roberts as the next chief justice, that one of the first people to know would be Mr. Gray. The next year, Mr. Gray became the ambassador of the United States to the European Union. Amid strain over the Iraq War he worked on agreements about global trade, seeking to open European markets to American goods.
In 2015 Mr. Gray, long considered a loyalist of the Bush family and a notable host in the Washington social scene, for the presidential campaign of Jeb Bush. Three years later, he for wealthy donors to President Trump. In December 2020, The Times reported that Mr. Gray formed by Mr. Trump after that year’s election.
Yet in his public statements, Mr. Gray maintained the politesse of a traditional stalwart of the Grand Old Party. In April, he told The Times , as the George Mason Law School is called, because it “adds to the debate.”
C. Boyden Gray was a prominent figure in the conservative legal establishment who personified the Republican Party's legal strategy, judicial appointments, policy, diplomacy, and fund-raising for every Republican president since Ronald Reagan. He was a trusted adviser who was able to stroll into the Oval Office whenever he liked. He was a loyalist of the Bush family and a notable host in the Washington social scene. He promoted the careers of conservative lawyers, facilitated the appointments of Supreme Court justices, and was involved in legal work for Donald J. Trump. His influence and legacy will be remembered for years to come.
