John T. Noonan, Jr. papers

John T. Noonan, Jr. was born in 1926 in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his BA from Harvard University in 1946, where he was elected Phi Betta Kappa. He then studied English Literature at Cambridge University during 1947, and received his MA and Ph.D. in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America in 1951. After earning his LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1954, he went into private practice at the firm of Herrick & Smith in Boston from 1955 to 1960. Noonan held several academic positions, including assistant professor, 1961-1963, and professor, 1963-1966 at Notre Dame University, Robbins Professor of Law at University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (formerly Boalt Hall School of Law) 1967-1985, and Visiting Professor of Law, Harvard University, in 1989. President Ronald Reagan nominated Noonan to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in October 1985, where Noonan attained senior status in December of 1996 and served as judge until his death in 2017. Noonan’s professional and personal lives were heavily informed by his Catholicism. He authored numerous books and articles relating to canon law, Catholic history and theology, and the practice of law in relation to moral and social issues including abortion and reproductive rights. Noonan served in leadership roles for many organizations, including Pope Paul IV’s Commission on Problems of the Family and the Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, and sat on the editorial boards of several legal journals, including the American Journal of Jurisprudence and the Law and Society Review.