RELEASE ON RECEIPT

                       U.S. CIRCUIT APPEALS COURT JUDGE TO 
                       DELIVER LECTURE ON RELIGION AND LAW

       CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Oct. 6 -- The Honorable John T. Noonan Jr., 
a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, will deliver 
the first Meador Lecture on Law and Religion, "Religious Liberty at Stake," 
on Oct. 9 at 4 p.m. in Room WB-152 of the University of Virginia School of Law.
      Noonan, appointed to the Court of Appeals in 1985 by President Reagan, 
is Robbins Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of California at 
Berkeley. He previously served on the law faculty of Notre Dame University 
and on the Special Staff of the National Security Council, and practiced 
privately. Noonan received undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard 
University and a Ph.D. in philosophy from The Catholic University of America.
        His public and professional service includes terms as chairman of 
the Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, president of 
the American Catholic Philosophical Association, a director of the Population 
Council, and editor of the American Journal of Jurisprudence. In addition to 
numerous articles, Noonan has written several books, including "Contraception" 
(1965), "Persons and Masks of the Law" (1977), and "Bribes" (1984). He will 
publish "The Lustre of Our Country: The American Experience of Religious 
Freedom" in 1998. Noonan holds honorary degrees from 10 American universities, 
has twice been the recipient of Guggenheim Fellowships and has twice 
delivered Holmes Lectures at Harvard. He has been a Fellow of the Woodrow 
Wilson International Center for Scholars, the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences, and the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences.
           The Meador Lectureship on Law and Religion was established through 
the generosity of Professor Emeritus Daniel J. Meador, and of alumni and 
friends of U.Va.'s School of Law in honor of Meador's retirement in 1994.  
The major themes of the lectureship are expected to explore the interplay of 
religion and law as powerful forces in the development of Western civilization.
         Co-sponsored by the U.Va. Department of Religious Studies, the talk 
is free and open to the public.
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                                                             October 6, 1997

       For more information, contact Daniel J. Meador at (804) 924 3947.  
Television reporters should contact our TV News office at (804) 924-7550.