Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law Houston
Josh Blackman is a national thought leader on constitutional law and the United States Supreme Court. Josh’s work was quoted during two presidential impeachment trials. He has testified before Congress and advises federal and state lawmakers. Josh regularly appears on TV, including NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and the BBC. Josh is also a frequent guest on NPR and other syndicated radio programs. He has published commentaries in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and leading national publications.
Since 2012, Josh has served as a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston. He holds the Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law. Josh is an Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Josh has written more than seven dozen law review articles that have been cited more than a thousand times. Josh was selected as the Jurist of the Year by the Texas Journal of Law & Public Policy, received the inaugural Meese III Originalism Award, and was awarded the Inaugural Joseph Story Award. Josh was selected by Forbes Magazine for the “30 Under 30” in Law and Policy. Josh is the President of the Harlan Institute, and founded FantasySCOTUS, the Internet’s Premier Supreme Court Fantasy League. He blogs at the Volokh Conspiracyand posts@JoshMBlackman.
Professor of Law, Oklahoma City University School of Law
Professor O’Shea is a nationally recognized expert on firearms law and the Second Amendment. He is a co-author of the first law school casebook on the subject, Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights, and Policy, published in 2012. He serves as the Associate Director of OCU Law’s Center for State Constitutional Law and Government.
Professor O’Shea is an honors graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He also holds a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh. Before coming to Oklahoma City University School of Law in 2006, he practiced commercial litigation in Chicago and in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. He also served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Danny J. Boggs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and to Judge John R. Gibson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Floyd & Irma Calvert Chair of Law and Liberty and Professor of Law, University of Oklahoma College of Law
Rick Tepker is the first member of the OU law faculty to appear, argue and win a case before the United States Supreme Court. In 1987, the Court appointed Tepker as counsel for petitioner, an indigent juvenile sentenced to death. Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 815 (1988). It was the first case in which an American court overturned a death sentence on constitutional grounds because the condemned was too young at the time of the crime.
Professor Tepker has had a wide range of university and professional service, including: chair of the university Faculty Senate; two-time chair of the campus Tenure Committee; secretary for the American Bar Association Section on Labor and Employment Law; historian of the Tenth Circuit Historical Society; and professor-in-residence for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. During his tenure with the EEOC, he represented the agency in U.S. Supreme Court cases concerning university academic freedom in Title VII cases (Univ. of Pennsylvania v. EEOC, 493 U.S. 182 (1990)) and pension benefit plans under the federal age discrimination statute (Public Employee Retirement System v. Betts, 492 U.S. 158 (1989)).
Tepker is author of many law review articles and has earned numerous university teaching awards, including the University of Oklahoma Regents Award for Superior Teaching and the Merrick Foundation Award. In September 1998, the Regents of The University of Oklahoma named Professor Tepker as the first Calvert Chair of Law and Liberty. He teaches courses in the areas of constitutional law, employment law and equal employment opportunity.
Professor Tepker is a 1973 graduate of Claremont Men's College. He earned his law degree in 1976 from Duke University. He is a member of the Order of the Coif, Phi Beta Kappa, and the American Bar Association. Prior to joining the OU faculty, he practiced law for five years, specializing in labor and employment issues, as an associate with the Los Angeles firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
