Gerhard Gesell

Gerhard Alden Gesell (June 16, 1910 – February 19, 1993) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Education and career Born in Los Angeles, California, Gesell received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University in 1932 and a Bachelor of Laws from Yale Law School in 1935. He was a trial attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1935 to 1940 and a technical advisor to the Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman from 1940 to 1941. He was in private practice in Washington, DC, from 1941 to 1967. In 1945 and 1946, he served as Chief Assistant Counsel for the Democrats during the Pearl Harbor hearings. He chaired the President's Committee on Equal Opportunity in the Armed Forces from 1962 to 1964. Federal judicial service On November 29, 1967, Gesell was nominated by US President Lyndon B. Johnson to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia vacated by Judge Spottswood William Robinson III. Gesell was confirmed by the US Senate on December 7, 1967, and received his commission on December 12, 1967. Gesell assumed senior status on January 22, 1993, and served in that status until his death on February 19, 1993, in Washington, DC. Watergate trials In 1973, Judge Gesell ruled illegal the firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox by Acting Attorney General Robert Bork under the orders of President Richard Nixon in the so-called Saturday Night Massacre.