Faculty in the News
New Con Law prof is Loyola's 'coup'
By Jerry Crimmins
Law Bulletin staff writer
August 15, 2008 - Volume: 154 Issue: 161
The first professor to hold the Raymond and Mary Simon Chair in Constitutional Law at Loyola University Chicago describes himself as a liberal who grew up on the Northwest Side and once attended a Catholic seminary.
John E. Nowak, 61, said he grew up near Belmont and Central avenues in St. Ferdinand's Parish and later around Harlem and Touhy avenues in St. Juliana's Parish.
"I went for two years to what was then Quigley Seminary," he said, referring to Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary on the Near North Side.
That was from 1960 to 1962, "when dinosaurs ruled the world and I had hair."
Nowak is the author or co-author of more than 20 law review articles and several books on constitutional law. With Professor Ronald D. Rotunda, now at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, Calif., Nowak authored a series of books on constitutional law.
His favorite is the six-volume "Treatise on Constitutional Law: Substance and Procedure," published by Thompson West and now in its fourth edition.
Rotunda "represents the conservative view and I represent the liberal," Nowak said. "We hope that the books end up right down the middle with an unbiased view of the courts."
The work "is my favorite, because it's being used a lot by courts throughout the U.S., and it's nice to think your writings make a difference sometimes," he said.
Asked to describe some of the major constitutional issues of our time, Nowak picked two.
First, he said, "I think in recent times the reversal, as I see it, of the court's support for racial minorities has been the saddest change of the court during all my years of being a professor."
Two examples, he said, are the court's rulings limiting affirmative action and rulings on the Voting Rights Act.
Today, he explained, if Chicago gerrymandered the boundaries of a ward represented by a black alderman and dominated by black voters to add more white voters, "it's harder now than it was 20 years ago to show that … it was based on race rather than on other factors."
In the past 20 years, he said, it has become generally more difficult "for minority race persons to challenge voting law changes that may have an adverse impact on minority race voting blocks."
"On the plus side," he said, "the court has expanded First Amendment rights in a number of areas during the Burger and Rehnquist court years.
"The court has given, for instance, more protection to the groups in the commercial speech area."
These changes opened advertising channels that in turn have brought down prescription drug prices, Nowak said. He said when he was growing up, states prohibited advertising of prescription drug prices.
"The Supreme Court during the Burger years found this violated the First Amendment."
The Supreme Court also "brought down the price of beer because the court struck down laws that would prohibit grocery stores owners from advertising the price of beer."
This is an example, he said, of how "constitutional issues like that just affect everyday life."
As for judicial interpretation of the national charter, Nowak said, "The Constitution every time gets filtered by human beings. When they say judges should just apply the Constitution, that's just silly.
"The Constitution doesn't say much. It's always going to be interpreted by judges no matter who they are."
Nowak stressed that he has been a law teacher all his working life except for when he clerked for the late Justice Walter V. Schaefer of the Illinois Supreme Court right after Nowak earned his law degree from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1971.
He joined the U of I law faculty in 1972. He has done stints as a visiting professor at law schools around the country, but other than that, he stayed at U of I until this year.
Last month, Nowak joined Loyola University Chicago School of Law to hold the chair in constitutional law named after Raymond and Mary Simon. The chair was established by the Helen V. Brach Foundation to honor Simon, its retiring president. Simon also is the former corporation counsel for the City of Chicago.
Mary Simon holds a bachelor of arts degree from Loyola Chicago, as well as graduate degrees from the University of Chicago and the National University of Mexico. The Simons have seven sons and one daughter.
Loyola law Dean David N. Yellen said hiring Nowak for the Simon Chair "is a real coup for us. He is one of the giants in the field of constitutional law."
Nowak has been a member of the Accreditation Committee of the Association of American Law Schools and chairman of the same group's Section on Constitutional Law.
He has been scholar in residence at the University of Arizona, a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, the Lee Distinguished Visiting Professor at the College of William and Mary, and the Williams Visiting Professor at the University of Richmond.
Nowak will teach a course on the First Amendment rights this fall at Loyola. In the spring, he said he will teach basic constitutional law. "I figure on adding a civil rights or a specialized free speech course" down the line, he said.
"I hope to be able to teach both in the evening division and in the day division so that I get to know a wide segment of the students. I really like teaching. That's all I've ever done."
