Gerald Gunther (1927–2002)

2698 Learned Hand: The Man and the Judge, by Gerald Gunther (read 22 Jan 1995) This is a superlative biography of Hand (born Jan 27, 1872 in Albany, N. Y., appointed a Federal District Judge in 1909, elevated to the Second Circuit in 1924, died in New York City on Aug 18, 1961) by Gunther, who clerked for Hand in the earlier 1950's and was a Con Law professor at Stanford. I found this a fascinating book, even though I obviously have disagreement with Hand's agnosticism. He was not really a very successful lawyer, but he was sheerly brilliant in his mind and as a judge. This book would have been fun to read in a law library, since it gives lots of citations which if one had read them as one went along would have made the book even more enjoyable. I doubt I have ever read a better biography of a judge.… (mais)

Maintains the tripartite structure of the 1st editions published in 1937: Judicial Function, Federal System, and Individual Rights. The volume captures the flower of the deferential/reverential view of the Constitution, just before it became one of the last of the Sacred Cows to be shown by circumstances to be long-overdue for change, not just study. Gives great credit to the Opinions of some of the most small-minded and unnecessarily self-protectively self-defeating writers on the planet. And then it only got worse, on a Court dominated by anti-intellectuals who the academics like Gunther finally had to recognize for what they were: hypocrites who were destroying the principles of the Constitution.
Gunther was a Jew among Germans raised in Czechoslavakia, with memories of his teachers referring to him as "Judensau". He graduated from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, and began a teaching career. Included among his grateful and successful students, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, for whom he had predicted great things. Professor Gunther died age 75 in 2001, having been of great service on the campuses during the turbulent 60's and early 70's.… (mais)