Description
Collection includes
correspondence; Gunther's writings; biographical materials; files from his work on the
Constitutional Law casebook; research files on Learned Hand, including photocopies of
original documents; and microfilmed records of Supreme Court cases dating back to
1807.
Background
Gerald Gunther, the leading constitutional law scholar in the United States, joined the
faculty of the Stanford Law School in 1962 and was the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of
Law, Emeritus, at the time of his death in 2002. Born in Germany in 1927, he immigrated to
the United States with his family in 1938. He earned his undergraduate degree at Brooklyn
College, his master's degree in public law and government at Columbia, and his law degree at
Harvard Law School, graduating second in his class in 1953. He was then appointed to a
prestigious one year clerkship with Judge Learned Hand of the United States Court of Appeals
for the Second Circuit, followed in 1954-1955 by a clerkship with Chief Justice Earl Warren.
Highly regarded for his casebook on constitutional law, he also wrote a prize-winning
biography of Learned Hand. At Stanford he was known for his passionate defense of freedom of
speech on the campus.
Restrictions
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must
be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford
University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special
Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright
owner, heir(s) or assigns. See:
http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.
Availability
This collection is open for research.