Gale Norton
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Gale Ann Norton (born March 11, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 48th
United States Secretary of the Interior The United States secretary of the interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior. The secretary and the Department of the Interior are responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land along with natura ...
under President
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
from 2001 to 2006. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 35th Attorney General of Colorado from 1991 to 1999. Norton was the first woman to hold each of those posts.


Early life and education

Norton was born in
Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the List of cities in Kansas, most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397, ...
, to Dale and Anna Norton. She was raised in Wichita and
Thornton, Colorado Thornton is a home rule municipality located in Adams and Weld counties, Colorado, United States. The city population was 141,867, all in Adams County, at the 2020 United States census, an increase of 19.44% since the 2010 United States cen ...
, and graduated ''
magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...
'' and
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
from the
University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...
in 1975. Norton earned her
Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...
degree with honors from that university's College of Law in 1978. In the late 1970s, she was a member of the Libertarian Party; she was nearly selected as its national director in 1980, before later becoming a Republican. Norton was influenced by the works of novelist
Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum; , 1905March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system which s ...
, and has been associated with a number of groups in the " wise use" or " free-market environmentalist" movement such as the Property and Environmental Research Center, of which she is a
fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...
.


Career

Following her graduation from law school, Norton worked as a senior attorney at the Mountain States Legal Foundation from 1979 to 1983. Norton was a National Fellow at the
Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace and formerly The Hoover Institute and Library on War, Revolution, and Peace) is an American public policy think tank which promotes personal and economic ...
during 1983–1984, before taking a position at the U.S. Department of Agriculture as an assistant to Deputy Secretary
Richard Edmund Lyng Richard Edmund Lyng (June 29, 1918 – February 1, 2003) was a U.S. administrator. A Republican, he served as the secretary of agriculture between 1986 and 1989. Early life and career Lyng was born on June 29, 1918, in San Francisco, Cali ...
. From 1985 to 1990, she served as Associate Solicitor for the
United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation ...
, in which capacity she managed attorneys employed by the
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
and the
United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is a List of federal agencies in the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of the Interior which oversees the management of fish, wildlife, ...
.


Colorado Attorney General

Norton returned to Colorado after her stint at the Department of the Interior, and was elected as the state's first female
Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...
in 1991. As Attorney General, Norton led the state's attorneys in defending state laws, including Colorado Amendment 2, a 1992 state constitutional amendment that prohibited any level or branch of state government from recognizing homosexuals as a protected class. Challenges to Amendment 2 reached the United States Supreme Court, which invalidated the amendment in '' Romer v. Evans'' (1996). Norton ran for election to the U.S. Senate in
1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...
as a Republican, but was defeated in the primary by then-U.S. Representative Wayne Allard. During that year, Norton delivered a controversial speech in which she remarked that while state sovereignty had been misused to defend slavery prior to and during the
Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
, with the end of the war, the United States "lost the idea that the states were to stand against the federal government having too much power over our lives". With the attorneys general of 45 other states, Norton participated in the negotiation of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (entered into in 1998) a settlement of Medicaid lawsuits by the states against U.S. tobacco companies for the recovery of public health costs attributed to the treatment of smoking-related illnesses. Norton's second term ended in 1999. Due to state term limits, she did not seek a third term. After leaving the Attorney General's Office, Norton was a senior counsel at Brownstein, Hyatt & Farber, a
Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
-based law firm.


U.S. Secretary of the Interior

She worked at Brownstein until President
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
nominated her as the U.S. Secretary of the Interior in 2001. Norton, the first female to hold the position, was confirmed by the Senate and served as Secretary until 2006. She was succeeded by Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne during the second term of the
administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...
of George W. Bush. On January 29, 2002, she served as the designated survivor during President Bush's first State of the Union Address. On September 17, 2009, the
United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...
opened a criminal investigation into whether Norton's employment at
Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...
violated a law that bars federal employees from discussing employment with a company if the employee is involved in decisions that could benefit that company. The investigation focused on a 2006 decision by Norton's agency to grant
oil shale Oil shale is an organic-rich Granularity, fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of Organic compound, organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general compos ...
leases to Royal Dutch Shell. The DOJ closed the investigation in 2010, declining to press charges.


Post-government career

At the time of her resignation as Secretary, Norton was considered "the Bush administration's leading advocate for expanding oil and gas drilling and other industrial interests in the West."Wallsten, Peter and Tom Hamburge
Cabinet Official Norton Resigns
''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'', March 11, 2016.
After leaving Washington, she joined
Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...
as a general counsel in its exploration and production business. As of 2017, Norton worked for Norton Regulatory Strategies, an
Aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...
-based consulting firm that deals with environmental regulations. In 2012, she also was a senior adviser for Clean Range Ventures, an energy venture capital firm. She serves as a board member for the
Federalist Society The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (FedSoc) is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative and Libertarianism in the United States, libertarian legal organization that advocates for a Textualism, textualist an ...
, the Reagan Alumni Association, the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute at the
University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...
.About – Norton Regulatory Strategies
Retrieved September 27, 2017


Electoral history

* 1996 United States Senate Republican Primary (Colorado) ** Wayne Allard (R), 57% ** Gale Norton (R), 43%


Personal life

Norton lives in Colorado with John Hughes, her second husband.


See also

* List of female state attorneys general in the United States * List of female United States Cabinet members


References


External links


Official White House biography of Gale A. Norton, 2001–2006


*
Remarks by Gale Norton at the opening of the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site

Gale Norton joining Royal Dutch Shell
, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Gale 1954 births Living people 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century Colorado politicians 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century American women politicians 21st-century Colorado politicians 21st-century American women politicians George W. Bush administration cabinet members Colorado attorneys general Colorado Libertarians Colorado Republicans Female interior ministers Politicians from Wichita, Kansas Shell plc people Sturm College of Law alumni United States secretaries of the interior Women in Colorado politics Women members of the Cabinet of the United States