Joseph Blocher

Joseph Blocher is the Lanty L. Smith ’67 Professor of Law at Duke University, where he received the law school’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2012. His principal academic interests include federal and state constitutional law, the First and Second Amendments, legal history, and property. His published articles can be found in leading law journals including the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Yale Journal of International Law. He is co-author of Free Speech Beyond Words (NYU Press, 2017) and The Positive Second Amendment: Rights, Regulation, and the Future of Heller (Cambridge University Press, 2018). He has also written for the New York Times, Vox, Quartz, The News & Observer and other public outlets, and serves as Co-Director of the Center for Firearms Law.

Professor Blocher received his B.A. magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Rice University, his M.Phil in Land Economy from Cambridge University, and his J.D. from Yale Law School. After law school, he clerked for Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Rosemary Barkett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He also practiced law at O'Melveny & Myers LLP, where he assisted the merits briefing for the District of Columbia in District of Columbia v. Heller.