Josh Blackman

Joshua Michael Blackman (born August 13, 1984, in New York City) is an American lawyer and associate professor of law at the South Texas College of Law, where he teaches constitutional law, contracts, and legal theory. He writes about constitutional law, the Affordable Care Act, and the intersection of technology and law. He has been described as a conservative legal scholar.^[1][2][3]

After attending Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania, and the Antonin Scalia School of Law (then George Mason University Law School) in Arlington, Virginia, Blackman worked as a law clerk for the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania under Judge Kim R. Gibson from 2009 to 2011. He then worked for the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit under Judge Danny Julian Boggs from 2011 to 2012.

Blackman joined the South Texas College of Law as an assistant professor in 2012 and received tenure as an Associate Professor in 2018. Blackman is the founder of the FantasySCOTUS and the author of several books on the constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act.

Life and career[]

Blackman was born on October 13, 1984, in New York City. After graduating from high school, he attended Penn State University, and graduated with a BS in Information Sciences and Technology in 2005. He then went to the Antonin Scalia School of Law (then George Mason Law School), graduating with a JD in 2009.^[4]

After finishing law school, Blackman clerked for judge Kim R. Gibson in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

During that time, Blackman rose to prominence in the legal community as a partisan Court-watcher and analyst. His personal blog won several awards by the American Bar Association.^[5] He launched and managed FantasySCOTUS, a United States Supreme Court prediction market.^[6]

Blackman joined the South Texas College of Law in 2012 after finishing a clerkship under Judge Danny Julian Boggs. There, he teaches Property, Constitutional Law, and legal theory. He is an active speaker for the Federalist Society, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and has regular media appearances to discuss constitutional law in the United States.

Court cases[]

Blackman regularly contributes to amici briefs and commentary for pending cases in federal court.

Most notably, in 2015, he represented Defense Distributed in their First Amendment challenge to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations ban on 3D printed gun files. Blackman's case was notable insofar as it was a First Amendment challenge to arms regulations.^[7]

CUNY incident[]

On March 29, 2018, while guest lecturing at CUNY Law School for the Federalist Society, Blackman was interrupted and heckled by campus protesters for defending the Trump administration's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Blackman, who has stated that he was not defending the decision, recorded and posted the protest on YouTube, where it was reshared by numerous news outlets.^[8]

Books[]

• 2013 Unprecedented: The Constitutional Challenge to Obamacare, Public Affairs Books. ISBN 978-1610393287
• 2016 Unraveled: Obamacare, Religious Liberty, and Executive Power, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 978-1107169012
• 2019 An Introduction to Constitutional Law: 100 Supreme Court Cases Everyone Needs to Know, Wolters Kluwer.

References[]

External links[]

• Cato Institute scholars from the Cato Institute
• Appearances on C-SPAN