| John Noonan | |
|---|---|
| Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit | |
| In office December 17, 1985 – December 27, 1996 |
|
| Nominated by | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Seat established |
| Succeeded by | Marsha Berzon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 24, 1926 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Harvard University St John's College, Cambridge Catholic University of America |
John Thomas Noonan, Jr. (born October 24, 1926) is a Senior Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, with chambers in San Francisco, California. He was appointed in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan.
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Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Noonan was raised a Catholic and attended the John D. Runkle School and Rivers Country Day School; he graduated from Rivers Country in January 1944 and immediately transferred to Harvard University.[1] After the summer of 1946,[1] he graduated from Harvard with an A.B. then received his M.A. in 1949 and his Ph.D. in 1951 from The Catholic University of America.[2] In 1954, he received an LL.B. from Harvard Law School.[2] Between his undergraduate and graduate studies, Noonan briefly attended St John's College, Cambridge.[3]
After law school, Noonan worked as Special Staff to the United States National Security Council, assisting National Security Advisor Robert Cutler from 1954-1955.[2] He then entered private practice, working for the Boston law firm of Herrick Smith Donald Farley & Ketchum from 1955 until 1960.
In 1960, Noonan joined the faculty at the University of Notre Dame Law School, where he taught until 1966. In that year, Noonan became Professor of Law at Boalt Hall, the law school of the University of California, Berkeley.[2]
Noonan received the Laetare Medal from the University of Notre Dame in 1984. In 2009, he spoke at graduation "in the spirit of Laetare" when Mary Ann Glendon, the designated recipient of the award, declined to accept it in protest over President Obama being awarded an honorary degree by the University that year.
Also in 2009, Noonan was received into the college of fellows of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology.
On October 16, 1985, President Ronald Reagan appointed Noonan to the newly-created 27th seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, created by 98 Stat. 333.[2] Noonan was confirmed by United States Senate on December 16, 1985, and received his commission the following day.[2] He took senior status on December 27, 1996.[2]
Dissenting from the majority ruling in 1988 that the Townley Engineering and Manufacturing Company, a Christian-operated mining equipment manufacturer, could not require employees to attend prayer services, Noonan argued that the company already allowed workers to wear ear plugs or read newspapers during such services.[4]
In 1990, Noonan issued a stay on the execution of convicted murderer Robert Alton Harris, who argued that childhood brain damage interfered with his judgments during his crimes.[5] Harris was executed in 1992 after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected all stays.
Noonan and two other judges ruled unanimously on February 11, 1992 that the fear that a battered woman suffers may justify a reduced federal prison sentence in the case of three women who participated in a Portland, Oregon drug ring. Wrote Noonan in his opinion: "Our own law recognizes that for a substantial period of time a brutal man may subject women to severe psychological stress such that they 'failed to escape or cry out for help when in a public place because they lacked sufficient ego strength, self-confidence and willpower.'"[6]
With Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain, Noonan issued a ruling on March 10, 1995 upholding a Washington state law banning assisted suicide.[7] The following year, Noonan dissented from a decision overturning drug possession convictions of three Rastafari residents of Montana on the grounds of religious freedom.[8] Noonan concurred with Judge Pamela Rymer in a 1997 decision upholding don't ask, don't tell, the ban on open homosexuals serving in the military, and cited that courts have generally deferred to military policy.[9]
In a decision upholding Judge Susan Bolton's blocking of parts of the Arizona SB 1070 law targeting illegal immigrants, Noonan wrote: "For those sympathetic to immigrants to the United States, it is a challenge and a chilling foretaste of what other states might attempt."[10]
John Noonan married to Mary Lee Bennett on December 27, 1967;[11][12] they had three children: John Kenneth Noonan (born 1969),[13] Rebecca Lee Noonan (born 1971),[14] and Susanna Bain Noonan.[12] The judge lives in Berkeley, California.
Noonan is the author of several books:
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| New seat | Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit 1985–1996 |
Succeeded by Marsha Berzon |