Grover Joseph Rees III (born October 11, 1951) is a

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

lawyer who served as chief justice of the

High Court of American Samoa The High Court of American Samoa is a Samoan court and the highest court below the United States Supreme Court in American Samoa. The Court is located in the capital of Fagatogo. It consists of one chief justice and one associate justice, appo ...

from 1986 to 1991, and as the first

United States Ambassador to East Timor The diplomatic post of United States Ambassador to Timor-Leste (formerly known as East Timor) was created after the formalization of the independence of Timor-Leste from Indonesia on May 20, 2002. The United States recognized the new nation immedi ...

from 2002 to 2006.

Early life, education, and career

Born in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, Rees was the oldest of twelve children born to Grover Joseph Rees II and Patricia Byrne Rees. Rees graduated from

Georgetown Preparatory School Georgetown Preparatory School (also known as Georgetown Prep) is a Jesuit college-preparatory school in Rockville, Maryland for boys in ninth through twelfth grade. It has a 93-acre (380,000 square meters) campus. It is the only Jesuit boarding s ...

in 1968, and thereafter received an undergraduate degree from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, and a Juris Doctor from the

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

Paul M. Hebert Law Center The Paul M. Hebert Law Center, often styled "LSU Law", is a Public university, public law school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is part of the Louisiana State University System and located on the main campus of Louisiana State University. Because ...

in 1978. From 1978 to 1979, he served as a

law clerk A law clerk, judicial clerk, or judicial assistant is a person, often a lawyer, who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by Legal research, researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial ...

to Albert Tate Jr. of the

Louisiana Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Louisiana (; ) is the supreme court, highest court and court of last resort in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The modern Supreme Court, composed of seven justices, meets in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The Supreme ...

. Rees was a law professor at the

University of Texas School of Law The University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law) is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of Texas at Austin, a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas. According to Texas Law’s American Bar ...

from 1979 to 1986.

Political activities

Rees served as chief justice and associate justice of the

from 1986 to 1991, having served under appointment from both Presidents

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

and

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

. From 2001 to 2002, Rees served as the Counsel to the United States House of Representatives Committee on International Relations. In 2002, 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 Rees as the first

. Rees presented his credentials to the president of the Democratic Republic of East Timor, Kay Rala

Xanana Gusmão José Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmão (; born 20 June 1946) is an East Timorese politician. He has served as the 6th prime minister of East Timor since 2023, previously serving in that position from 2007 to 2015. A former rebel, he also served as E ...

in December 2002, and thereafter served for four years. From October 2006 to January 2009, he was a Special Representative for Social Issues in the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

. In 2016, Rees was a candidate in the

2016 United States House of Representatives elections in Louisiana The 2016 United States House of Representatives elections in Louisiana were held on November 8, 2016, to elect the six U.S. representatives from the state of Louisiana, one from each of the state's six congressional districts. The elections coi ...

, for

Louisiana's 3rd congressional district Louisiana's 3rd congressional district is a United States congressional district in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The district covers the southwestern and south central portion of the state, ranging from the Texas border to the Atchafalaya Rive ...

. He was endorsed by former Mayor of Lafayette

Dud Lastrapes A dud is in general something that fails to function in the way it is intended to. In a military context the word is often used to refer to an ammunition round or explosive that fails to fire or detonate as expected. Poorly designed devices ...

, and former

United States Ambassador to the United Nations The United States ambassador to the United Nations is the leader of the U.S. delegation, the United States Mission to the United Nations, U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The position is formally known as the Permanent representative to the U ...

John Bolton John Robert Bolton (born November 20, 1948) is an American attorney, diplomat, Republican Party (United States), Republican consultant, and political commentator. He served as the 25th United States ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to ...

, but received less than one percent of the vote in a crowded

jungle primary A nonpartisan primary, top-two primary, or jungle primary is a primary election in which all candidates for the same elected office run against each other at once, regardless of political party. This distinguishes them from partisan primaries, w ...

. In 2017, Rees was one of a group of 25 international figures who released a joint statement describing the 2017 imprisonment of Hong Kong democracy activists as "outrageously unjust". The signatories called the Umbrella Movement "one of the most peaceful and restrained movements of public protest the world has ever seen" and wrote that the sentencing amounted to "an outrageous miscarriage of justice, a death knell for Hong Kong’s rule of law and basic human rights, and a severe blow to the principles of 'One Country, Two Systems'".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rees, Grover III 1951 births Living people Lawyers from New Orleans Georgetown Preparatory School alumni Yale University alumni Louisiana State University Law Center alumni Law clerks University of Texas School of Law faculty Ambassadors of the United States to Timor-Leste Chief justices of the High Court of American Samoa Louisiana Republicans American non-fiction writers Writers from Lafayette, Louisiana Writers from New Orleans