Burger's Early Years
During his school years, Warren E. Burger was involved in a variety of intra- and extracurricular activities. He headed the student council and student court, worked for the school newspaper, played several sports and at least two instruments - while at the same time contributing to the family income through jobs as paperboy, camp counselor, and lifeguard. So it comes as no surprise that he stayed actively involved in community affairs and politics. As a young lawyer in Minnesota, while still teaching classes at the St. Paul College of Law, he was the president of the local junior chamber of commerce. In the late 1940s, Burger was a member of the governor of Minnesota’s interracial commission and president of St. Paul’s Council for Human Relations, demonstrating an early interest in civil rights. Throughout the greater part of his career, the Chief Justice pursued his ideas of a reform of the American penal system. He actively lobbied on behalf of rehabilitation of prisoners and tirelessly promoted his vision of prisons as “Factories with Fences.”
Photographer unknown
Warren E. Burger, 1920
Photographer unknown
Warren E. Burger upon his graduation from St. Paul College of Law, L.L.B., magna cum laude, June 11, 1931
Diploma, 1931: Warren E. Burger graduated magna cum laude from the St. Paul College of Law, MN, on June 11, 1931
The exam booklet from Warren E. Burger’s Real Property II law class at St. Paul College of Law on January 12, 1931; his grade of 97 is penciled on the cover.