Gene R. Nichol

Areas of Expertise

• Civil Rights and Discrimination
• Constitutional Law
• Federal Courts
• Poverty Law

Biography

Gene Nichol is a professor of law teaching courses in the constitution and federal courts. He was president of the College of William & Mary (2005-2008), law dean at the University of Colorado (1988-1995) and dean at UNC from 1999-2005. He is the author of LESSONS FROM NORTH CAROLINA: Race, Religion, Tribe and the Future of America (Blair Publishing, 2023); INDECENT ASSEMBLY: The North Carolina Legislature’s Blueprint for the War Against Democracy and Equality (Blair Publishing, 2020); THE FACES OF POVERTY IN NORTH CAROLINA: Stories From Our Invisible Citizens (UNC Press, 2018); FEDERAL COURTS (5th ed. 2021, Marshall & Wells). He’s published articles in the Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Duke, California, and Virginia law reviews, and the Supreme Court Review,  He’s been a columnist for the Raleigh News & Observer for 20 years and for the Charlotte Observer and Durham Herald for many years. He’s also written for The Nation, the Washington Post, Southern Cultures and Slate Magazine.

In 2003, Nichol received the ABA’s Edward Finch Award for the nation’s best Law Day address. In 2004-5, he was named Carolina’s pro bono professor of the year, was inducted into the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, and Equal Justice Works named him pro bono dean of the year. In 2008, he received Oklahoma State University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award; the “Courage To Do Justice Award” from the National Employment Lawyers Association; and the Thomas Jefferson Award for defense of religious liberty from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. In 2013, the NC Council of Churches gave Nichol its Faith Active in Public Life Award; the NC-ACLU named him its W.W. Finlator Award winner; and UNC gave him its Thomas Jefferson Award — the university’s highest faculty honor. In 2014, he received the McCall Teaching Award from UNC School of Law and the University of Colorado’s Joanne Arnold award for courage in defense of civil liberty.

In 2018, he was invited by the faculty of the University of Michigan to give the annual Davis, Markert, Nickerson Academic Freedom Lecture and received UNC’s Wettach Award for research excellence. Nichol attended Oklahoma State University, receiving a degree in philosophy and playing varsity football. He obtained his J.D. from the University of Texas, graduating Order of the Coif.

Education

• J.D. (Order of the Coif), University of Texas at Austin (1976)

Selected Publications

LESSONS FROM NORTH CAROLINA: RACE, RELIGION, TRIBE, AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICA (Blair, 2023). 
JK4189 .N54 2023

Forcing Judges to Criminalize Poverty in North Carolina, 4 UCLA CRIM. JUST. L. REV. 227 (2020).
Lexis/Nexis | BEPress | Document Link

INDECENT ASSEMBLY: THE NORTH CAROLINA LEGISLATURE'S BLUEPRINT FOR THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY AND EQUALITY (Blair/Carolina Wren Press, 2020).
F254 .N57 2020

Losing Carolina, 25 SOUTHERN CULTURES 106 (Spring 2019).
Document Link

CASES AND MATERIALS ON FEDERAL COURTS (M. Wells, W. Marshall & G. Nichol, eds., 4th ed. 2019).
KF8719 .W45 2020

Lessons on Political Speech, Academic Freedom, and University Governance from the New North Carolina, 16 FIRST AMEND. L. REV. 39 (2018).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | Hein | BEPress

THE FACES OF POVERTY IN NORTH CAROLINA: STORIES FROM OUR INVISIBLE CITIZENS, (UNC Press, 2018).
HC107.N8 N57 2018

From Silence to Savagery, Pain for the Poor Intensifies (twelfth installment in series Seeing the Invisible: A Yearlong Look at N.C. Poverty), RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER, Op-Ed., Dec.. 28, 2013.
Document Link

Wages, Work, Privilege, and Legal Education 5 HARV. L. & POL'Y REV. 1 (2011).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress

Rethinking Standing, 72 CAL. L. REV. 68 (1984) (reprinted in LOUIS FISHER, AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (1990) and THOMAS O. SARGENTICH, ADMINISTRATIVE LAW ANTHOLOGY (1994)).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | Hein | BEPress

SSRN Author Page