Gerhard Alden Gesell
Appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967 and confirmed by voice vote, Gerhard Alden Gesell was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He earned a law degree from Yale Law School in 1935. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1910–1993
- Appointed by
- Lyndon B. Johnson, 1967
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Yale 1932 · Yale Law School 1935
- Succeeded
- Spottswood William Robinson III
- Succeeded by
- Paul L. Friedman
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | District of Columbia succeeded Spottswood William Robinson III | L.B. Johnson (D) | Voice vote |
Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.
Confirmation vote
Voice vote
The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.
Education
| Yale University | A.B. | 1932 |
| Yale Law School | LL.B. | 1935 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Gesell was assigned 1,081 district-court cases (1983–1992). Median time from filing to termination: 148 days across 1,081 closed cases.
Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.
In our data, Gesell authored 393 published opinions for the court (1968–1993). Most cited: Hackley v. Johnson (81 citations).
A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.
Recent & notable rulings
| Year | Case | Citation | Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Hackley v. Johnson | 360 F. Supp. 1247 | 81 |
| 1991 | Van Meter v. Barr | 778 F. Supp. 83 | 75 |
| 1968 | United States v. Kuch | 288 F. Supp. 439 | 73 |
| 1973 | Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians v. Morton | 354 F. Supp. 252 | 58 |
| 1979 | Islamic Republic of Iran v. Boeing Co. | 477 F. Supp. 142 | 56 |
| 1982 | Page v. First National Bank of MaryLand (In Re Page) | 18 B.R. 713 | 47 |
| 1971 | Menard v. Mitchell | 328 F. Supp. 718 | 47 |
| 1971 | Blankenship v. Boyle | 329 F. Supp. 1089 | 47 |
| 1969 | Retail Clerks Union, Local 648 v. Retail Clerks International Ass'n | 299 F. Supp. 1012 | 44 |
| 1979 | Zale Corp. v. United States Internal Revenue Service | 481 F. Supp. 486 | 43 |
| 1980 | American Guidance Foundation, Inc. v. United States | 490 F. Supp. 304 | 40 |
| 1978 | Anderson v. Nixon | 444 F. Supp. 1195 | 40 |
| 1973 | Sutherland v. District of Columbia Board of Parole | 366 F. Supp. 270 | 40 |
| 1984 | Whitlock v. Donovan | 598 F. Supp. 126 | 38 |
| 1978 | Environmental Defense Fund, Inc. v. Blum | 458 F. Supp. 650 | 37 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 393 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.
Questions & answers
- Who appointed Gerhard Alden Gesell?
- President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Gerhard Alden Gesell to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 1967.
- Was Gerhard Alden Gesell appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Gerhard Alden Gesell was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Gerhard Alden Gesell's confirmation vote?
- Gerhard Alden Gesell was confirmed by voice vote on December 7, 1967. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Gerhard Alden Gesell on?
- Gerhard Alden Gesell was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: Harris & Ewing, photographer (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
25 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).