Robert Blecker
Professor of Law, Emeritus
Contact Information
E robert.blecker@nyls.edu
Education
Harvard Fellow in Law and Humanities, 1976–77; Harvard, J.D. 1974, cum laude; Tufts, B.A. 1969
Profile
Robert Blecker is a nationally recognized expert in the fields of constitutional history and law, criminal law, and sports law.
As a constitutional historian and playwright, he wrote “Vote No!” which premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. in 1987, traveled to 16 states, and was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered. It is due to appear off-Broadway in 2024 after which a feature film will be released. His stage play Joseph Warren about America’s forgotten founder received a foundation grant and will also be brought to the stage in 2024. Professor Blecker frequently draws on constitutional history to amplify current events, most recently in his New York Daily News opinion piece on Putin and the Ukraine.
As an expert on crime and punishment, Professor Blecker has been featured in 15 documentaries and is frequently profiled in leading media outlets such as the New York Times and USA Today. His crime and punishment memoir, The Death of Punishment: Searching for Justice Among the Worst of the Worst, drew heavily from insights of convicted killers and other prisoners in maximum security prisons and on death rows across the United States whose lives he documented.
As a leading voice in the jurisprudence of sport, Professor Blecker appeared solo on 60 Minutes Sports, and was featured in Sports Illustrated, the Washington Post, and many other media outlets as a central figure insisting that the NFL and not quarterback Tom Brady had cheated in the controversy known as Deflategate. The documentary Four Games in Fall, currently streaming on Amazon Prime, features his perspective on the controversy. Professor Blecker covered the 2016 and 2018 Olympics for the Observer as a philosopher of sport.
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