DUTY AND THE LAW - Judge John J. Parker and the Constitution

Bessemer, AL: Colonial Press. Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. 1987. First Edition. Hardcover. 250 pages; Clean and tight in original black cloth binding with bright gilt lettering. OCLC: 15607732 John Johnston Parker (1885–1958) was a U.S. judge who failed confirmation to the Supreme Court by one vote. He was also the U.S. alternate judge at the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals and later served on the United Nations' International Law Commission. After serving as special assistant to the Attorney General of the United States in 1923, Parker was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond. He became Chief Judge of that Court in 1931 and served in that capacity until his death in 1958. In 1930, Parker was nominated by President Herbert Hoover to the United States Supreme Court, but was defeated by one vote in the Senate as a result of political opposition. Parker was opposed by labor groups because of an opinion he had written regarding the United Mine Workers and yellow-dog contracts and by the nascent NAACP because of remarks he had made while a candidate for Governor in 1920 about the participation of African-Americans in the political process. The rejection of his nomination by the U.S. Senate was the first such unsuccessful nomination to the Supreme Court since 1894. Owen Roberts was later appointed and confirmed to the seat. Signed on ffep by previous owner "G. A. Gesell -- Judge Gerhard Alden Gesell (1910 – 1993) who began his career as a staff trial lawyer and later as adviser to Chairman William O. Douglas at the new Securities and Exchange Commission from 1935 to 1941. Gesell then entered private practice with Covington & Burling in Washington, where he specialized in antitrust and other corporate cases. While engaged in private practice, Gesell continued to serve the public sector. In 1945 and 1946, he served as Chief Assistant Counsel for the Democrats during the Pearl Harbor hearings. In 1962 he was a appointed Chairman of the President Kennedy's Committee on Equal Opportunity in the Armed Forces from 1962 to 1964. In 1967 Gesell was appointed to the United States District Court for DC by President Lyndon B. Johnson. He presided over several memorable cases. For example, in 1969 Judge Gesell declared that the District of Columbia's abortion statute was unconstitutional. In 1971, Judge Gesell was involved in the litigation surrounding the publication of The Pentagon Papers. He ruled that The Washington Post could continue to publish the series of articles about the Vietnam War based on the leaked secret study despite the Government's attempts to halt publication. During the Watergate investigations and litigation, Judge Gesell ruled that the dismissal of Archibald Cox as special prosecutor in the "Saturday night massacre" in October 1973 had been illegal. In the 1974 trial of John D. Ehrlichman, Judge Gesell sentenced him to 20 months to five years in prison for his role in the Watergate break-in. In 1989, a jury found Colonel North guilty of three of the 12 crimes he was charged with: obstructing Congress, destroying documents and receiving an illegal gratuity. Believing North had been carrying out orders from authorities above him, Gesell did not to send him to prison, but fined North $150,000, placed him on probation for two years, and assigned him community service. ; Signed by Notable Personage, Related .