The Nation: The Nation, Jun. 17, 1974

Judge Gerhard A. Gesell's scalding lectures to James St. Clair are typical of the outspoken jurist's conduct on the bench. A Yale Law School graduate (1935) and longtime Washington attorney in both private and Government practice, Gesell, a Democrat, was appointed to the federal judiciary by Lyndon Johnson in 1967. He generally takes a libertarian line and has been a tart critic of Government wiretapping, restrictive anti-abortion laws and the Nixon Administration's mass arrests during the 1971 May Day antiwar demonstrations. Noted for facing judicial issues headon, Gesell has been both helpful and...

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