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Gerald William Heaney

Gerald William Heaney

Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals

Born 1918 in Goodhue, MN

Died 2010 in Duluth, MN

FJC ID: 1015

Career output and lasting influence

Opinions attributed per year · peak 57/year

Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals · 1966–200619661970198019902000201020202026570
opinions

Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 1,161/year

Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals · 1966–2006196619701980199020002010202020261.2k0
citing decisions

Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals · 1966–2006

Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.

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Gerald William Heaney (January 29, 1918 – June 22, 2010) served for nearly forty years as a United States Circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, from his appointment by President Lyndon B. Johnson in November 1966 until his full retirement in August 2006.

Between the end of World War II and his appointment to the federal bench, he rewrote the Free State of Bavaria's labor laws, and was a valued political advisor and organizer for several liberal Democratic politicians, including Hubert Humphrey, Adlai Stevenson, Orville Freeman, Eugene McCarthy, and Walter Mondale. As an appellate court judge, Heaney typically favored broad interpretations of the Bill of Rights and civil rights, labor and employment rights statutes.

Full biography on Wikipedia ↗
Gender
Male
Race
White

Prior employment

  1. Private practice, Duluth, Minnesota
    1946–1966
  2. U.S. Army captain
    1942–1946
  3. Minnesota State Securities Commission
    Attorney · 1941–1942

Appointments

  1. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals
    U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
    1966–2006 · Appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson (Democratic)
    Term ended: Retirement

Education

  1. University of Minnesota Law School
    University of Minnesota Law School
    LL.B. · 1941
  2. University of Minnesota
    B.S.L. · 1939