Editing Christopher Cox (section)

=== White House ===
During the second term of [[Ronald Reagan]] from 1986 to 1988, Cox served as [[White House Counsel|senior associate counsel to the president]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=37092| title = Appointment of C. Christopher Cox as Senior Associate Counsel to the President {{!}} The American Presidency Project}}</ref> His duties included advising on the nomination of three [[List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court justices]], the establishment of the Brady Commission following the [[Black Monday (1987)|1987 market crash]], and the drafting of legislative reform proposals for the [[United States budget process|federal budget process]].<ref>Congressional Quarterly, "Politics in America", 1990 edition, Christopher Cox, CA 40th District.</ref>

In 1986, following Chief Justice [[Warren E. Burger|Warren Burger's]] confidential message to President Reagan that he planned to step down from the bench, White House Counsel [[Peter J. Wallison|Peter Wallison]] tasked a small team including Cox with thoroughly researching the opinions and judicial philosophies of the leading candidates for the next Supreme Court nomination. The effort focused on judges of the [[United States courts of appeals|U.S. Court of Appeals]] who had a substantial record of decisions. After narrowing the field to five or six, the search quickly settled on Judge [[Antonin Scalia]] of the [[United States District Court for the District of Columbia|U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit]], a recommendation the president accepted.<ref name="Wallison Oral History, UVA">{{cite web |title=Peter Wallison Oral History |url=https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-oral-histories/peter-wallison-oral-history |website=Oral History Project, University of Virginia Miller Center |date=October 27, 2016 |access-date=April 30, 2020 |ref=Wallison Oral History, UVA}}</ref><ref name="Cox Files in Reagan Library">{{cite web |title=Cox, C. Christopher: Files, 1985-1988 |url=https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/archives/textual/smof/cox.pdf |website=Reagan Library Collections |access-date=April 30, 2020 |ref=Cox Files in Reagan Library}}</ref>

As a part of his White House responsibilities, Cox also reviewed the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] files of nominees for presidential appointments.<ref name="ReferenceC">Cox Files in Reagan Library</ref>

When [[Howard Baker]] took over for [[Donald Regan]] as [[White House Chief of Staff|chief of staff]] in 1987, bringing with him [[Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr.]] as counsel to the president, [[First Lady of the United States|First Lady]] [[Nancy Reagan]] specifically asked Culvahouse to keep Cox on the White House staff. According to Culvahouse, she and the East Wing staff "liked Chris a lot ... He is a very good lawyer," and his willingness to give up his partnership in a prestigious law firm to join the White House staff only a year before had made an impression.<ref name="A.B. Culvahouse Oral History, UVA">{{cite web |title=A.B. Culvahouse Oral History |url=https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-oral-histories/ab-culvahouse-oral-history |website=Oral History Project, University of Virginia Miller Center |date=October 27, 2016 |access-date=April 30, 2020 |ref=A.B. Culvahouse Oral History, UVA}}</ref> As senior associate counsel under Culvahouse, Cox became deeply involved in market issues and securities issues including then-pending congressional proposals for legislation on [[insider trading]], [[greenmail]], [[High-yield debt|junk bonds]], [[golden parachute]]s and [[golden handcuffs]], [[tender offer]]s, and [[takeover]]s.<ref name="ReferenceC"/><ref>A.B. Culvahouse Oral History, UVA</ref>

His work on the White House response to the [[Black Monday (1987)|1987 stock market crash]] included the formation of the Presidential Task Force on Market Mechanisms and the recruitment of [[Harvard Business School]] professor [[Robert R. Glauber|Robert Glauber]], who had been Cox's department chairman during his stint on the faculty there, as its executive director. The Commission provided the definitive autopsy on what happened to the markets on [[Black Monday (1987)|Black Monday]], October 19, 1987, and its aftermath.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cox |first1=Christopher |title=Speech by SEC Chairman: 'The Role of Government in Markets,' Keynote Address and Robert R. Glauber Lecture at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 24, 2007 |url=https://www.sec.gov/news/speech/2007/spch102407cc.htm |website=SEC.gov |access-date=April 30, 2020}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceC"/> Coincidentally, eight months prior to the crash, Chief of Staff [[Howard Baker]] had asked Cox to write a detailed memo describing the emergency powers that the President might exercise in a market crisis. That landed Cox in an emergency meeting in the chief of staff's office on Black Monday, from which Baker called then-NYSE Chairman John Phelan to urge him to drop his plan to shut down the New York Stock Exchange.<ref>{{cite web |title=Keeping the Markets Open: Lessons Learned from the 1987 Market Break |url=http://3197d6d14b5f19f2f440-5e13d29c4c016cf96cbbfd197c579b45.r81.cf1.rackcdn.com/collection/programs/Transcript_2007_1101_MarketsOpen.pdf |website=www.sechistorical.org |access-date=April 30, 2020}}</ref>

[[File:1988 Sr. Assoc. Counsel Christopher Cox, Pres. Reagan confer in Oval Office.jpg|thumb|left|220px|Senior Associate Counsel Christopher Cox and President [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] confer in Oval Office, 1988]]
At the time, some conservatives were pushing for a [[Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution|constitutional convention]] to advance a [[balanced budget amendment]], and Cox conducted research on the question. He represented the White House at hearings on the advisability of releasing [[John Hinckley Jr.|John Hinckley]] from [[St. Elizabeth's Hospital]] following Hinckley's attempted [[Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan|assassination of President Reagan]], and led the vetting and research effort that resulted in [[Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law|Northwestern Law School]] Dean [[David Sturtevant Ruder|David Ruder]] being recommended to the president as [[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission|SEC Chairman]] in 1987.<ref name="ReferenceC"/>

A former soccer player at [[University of Southern California|USC]], as a White House counsel Cox worked with the [[United States Soccer Federation]] on its proposal to bring the [[FIFA World Cup|World Cup]] to the United States in 1994. “He was a key. Everybody in the damned government had their fingers in this,” said Eddie Mahe, who ran the U.S. Soccer Federation's 1986 campaign to bring the event to the United States. “Without him, I don’t know that it would have survived.” According to the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', soccer's governing body was requiring waivers of federal laws and regulations from virtually every agency of the federal government, and in "record time, Cox prepared an executive order directing the agencies to fall in line. Reagan signed it."<ref name="Los Angeles Times 1994 World Cup article">{{cite web |title=Cox Played Big Role in Scoring Cup; O.C. congressman helped steer soccer officials through Washington's regulatory maze in 1986, Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1994 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-06-17-mn-5294-story.html |via=www.latimes.com |work=Los Angeles Times |date=June 17, 1994 |access-date=May 1, 2020}}</ref> On July 5, 1988, the U.S. won the selection bid.<ref>{{cite web |title=White House Statement on the Selection of the United States as the Host Country for the 1994 World Cup Soccer Tournament |url=https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/research/speeches/070588b |website=www.reaganlibrary.gov |publisher=The White House |access-date=May 1, 2020}}</ref> In appreciation, the U.S. team presented Cox with the first jersey to be signed by all 22 members.<ref>Los Angeles Times 1994 World Cup article</ref><ref name="ReferenceC"/>