David P. Currie Scientist

David P. Currie (1936–2007) was the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, noted for his histories of the Constitution in Congress and the Supreme Court, his casebooks on federal courts and conflict of laws, and his award-winning teaching at the Law School. He was the son of legal scholar Brainerd Currie. His wife was Barbara Flynn Currie, Majority Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives.Born on May 29, 1936, in Macon, Georgia, Currie earned a B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1957, and a LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1960, where he served on the Harvard Law Review. After clerking for Judge Henry Friendly and then Justice Felix Frankfurter, he joined the Chicago Law faculty in 1962. His books include The Constitution of the United States, The Constitution in the Supreme Court: the First Hundred Years (1985), The Second Century (1990), the four volume The Constitution in Congress, and The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany (1994). He was also the author of the 1970 Illinois Environmental Protection Act and the first chair of the Illinois Pollution Control Board.