Academic Faculty
Full Time Teaching Faculty
Darrell A. H. Miller
Professor of LawBiography
Darrell A. H. Miller is a scholar of civil rights, constitutional law, civil procedure, state and local government law, and legal history.
His scholarship on the Second and Thirteenth Amendments has been published in leading law reviews such as the Yale Law Journal, the University of Chicago Law Review, and the Columbia Law Review, and has been cited by several courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States.
With Joseph Blocher, he is author of The Positive Second Amendment: Rights, Regulation, and the Future of Heller (Cambridge University Press, 2018). With his co-authors, he is currently working on a textbook to be published by Foundation Press titled The Second Amendment: Gun Rights and Regulation. In addition to his academic writing, Miller has published opinion pieces in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Slate.
Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Chicago in 2024, Miller taught law at the University of Cincinnati and then at Duke University, where he co-founded the Duke Center for Firearms Law, the first academic center of its kind in the nation.
Miller is a former clerk to the Honorable R. Guy Cole, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and practiced complex and appellate litigation at a firm in Columbus, Ohio before beginning his academic career.
A cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, Miller also holds degrees from Oxford University, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar, and from Anderson University. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and currently serves on its Council.
Education
Harvard Law School, 2001
JD cum laude
Notes Editor, Harvard Law Review
Oxford University, 1997 (2002)
BA Modern History & English
MA (Oxon.)
British Marshall Scholar 1995-1997
Anderson University, 1994
BA summa cum laude English & Education
Experience
University of Chicago Law School
Professor of Law 2024-present
Co-founder, Duke Center for Firearms Law
Council Member, American Law Institute
Duke University School of Law
Melvin G. Shimm Professor of Law 2017-2024 • Professor 2013-2017
Associate Dean for Intellectual Life July 1, 2020-June 30, 2022
Visiting Professor Spring 2012
Faculty Co-director, Duke Center for Firearms Law 2019-2024
University of Chicago Law School
Charles J. Merriam Scholar, Visiting Professor of Law Fall 2019
University of Cincinnati College of Law
Professor 2012-2013 • Associate Professor 2010-2012 • Assistant Professor 2007-2010
Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP
Litigation Associate 2002-2007
Hon. R. Guy Cole, Jr., U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Law Clerk 2001-2002
Presentations
- Presenter, “Originalism’s Selection Problem,” William & Mary Law School, Symposium on Jack M. Balkin, Memory and Authority (2024), Williamsburg, VA (March 29, 2024)
- Presenter, “Falsifying Tradition,” University of Arizona 2024 National Conference of Constitutional Law Scholars, Tucson, AZ (March 4, 2024)
- Panelist, “Teaching Stare Decisis – From the Warren Court (and Before) to the Roberts Court (and Beyond),” AALS, Washington, DC (Jan. 2024)
- Presenter, “Falsifying Tradition,” Loyola Law School, Constitutional Law Colloquium, Chicago, IL (Nov. 2023)
- Panelist, “Rethinking Race in American Legal Education,” American Society for Legal History, Philadelphia, PA (Oct. 2023)
- Panelist, “Text and (What Kind of) History?”, Stanford Constitutional Law Center, Stanford, CA (May 2023)
- Presenter, “Technology, Tradition, and ‘The Terror of the People’”, Northwestern Law School Workshop, Chicago, IL (May 2023)
- Presenter, “Manufacturing Outliers,” University of Houston Law Center Workshop, Houston, TX (Feb. 2023)
- Presenter, “Manufacturing Outliers,” University of Chicago Public Law Workshop, Chicago, IL (Oct. 2022)
- Presenter, “Manufacturing Outliers,” University of Colorado Colloquium, Boulder, CO (Oct. 2022)
- Presenter, Firearms Research Roundtable, NCSL, Denver, CO (Oct. 2022)
- Presenter, “Our Right to Bear Arms: A History of America’s Most Debated Amendment,” United States Capitol Historical Society (July 2022)
- Panelist, 2021-2022 ACS National Supreme Court Review (June 2022)
- Presenter, “Estoppel by Nonviolence,” St. John’s University School of Law Faculty Workshop (March 2022)
- Panelist, “Violence and Non-Delegation,” Guns, Violence and Democracy, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA (March 2022)
- Moderator, Privatizing the Gun Debate, Duke Law School, Durham, NC (March 2022)
- Moderator, Race and Guns, Duke Law School, Durham, NC (Nov. 2021)
- Panelist, Loyola University Chicago School of Law/George Washington University Law School, 12th Annual Constitutional Law Colloquium, Washington, DC (Nov. 2021)
- Panelist, “The 2nd Amendment at the Supreme Court: ‘700 Years of History’ and the Modern Effects of Guns in Public (Oct. 2021)
- Panelist, “Guns vs. Speech: Does the 2nd Amendment Threaten the 1st?,” Brennan Center for Justice (Sept. 2021)
- Moderator, “Corpus Linguistics and the Second Amendment,” Duke Law School, Duke Center for Firearms Law (June 2021)
- Moderator, “Second Amendment and the Monopoly of Violence,” Duke Law School (Apr. 2021)
- Moderator, “The Future of Qualified Immunity,” Duke Law School, Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Symposium (Apr. 2021)
- Presenter, “Second Amendment Equilibria,” Indiana University Workshop (Feb. 2021)
- Presenter, “Second Amendment Equilibria,” University of Arizona Workshop (Feb. 2021)
- Panelist, “Second Amendment Equilibria,” Constitutional Law Workshop, Loyola Law School Chicago (Nov. 2020)
- Symposium Panelist, “The Second Amendment’s Next Chapter,” Northwestern University (Oct. 2020)
- Panelist, “Policing in America: Past and Present,” Duke University, Durham, NC (July 2020)
- Presenter, The University of Chicago Symposium on Gun Violence, Chicago, IL (Mar. 2020)
- Debater, 36th Annual Jefferson B. Fordham Debate, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (Sept. 2019)
- Presenter, “Cities and Constitutional Change,” Amending America’s Unwritten Conference, Boston College, Boston, MA (May 2019)
- Panelist, “Gun Violence: Law, Politics, and Public Policy,” Marshall M. Criser Distinguished Symposium at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL (April 2019)
- Speaker, “History of Gun Rights and Regulations,” National History Center, Congressional Briefing, Washington, DC (March 2019)
- Panelist, “Bill of Rights Journal Symposium: Constitutional Rights: Intersections, Synergies, and Conflicts,” Williamsburg, VA. (March 2019)
- Conference Organizer and Panelist, “Reconstruction,” Duke University Law School (March 2019)
- Keynote Speaker (with Joseph Blocher), “The Second Amendment as Positive Law,” The Second Amendment 228 Years Later, Annual Law & Society Symposium, Charleston Law Review/Riley Institute at Furman, Charleston, SC (Feb. 2019)
- Panelist, “Judicial Courage, Judicial Heroes and the Civil Rights Movement,” AJEI/ECAPI 2018 Summit, Atlanta, GA (Nov. 2018)
- Speaker, “Fourteenth Amendment Sesquicentennial – Origins, Evolution, and Enduring Relevance,” National Bar Association, 93d Annual Judicial Convention, New Orleans, La. (Aug. 2018)
- Presenter, “Enforcing a Bill of Rights: Lessons from the American Experience,” W.G. Hart Legal Workshop, London, UK (June 2018)
- Speaker, “Fourteenth Amendment Sesquicentennial – Origins, Evolution, and Enduring Relevance,” Judges Retreat, U.S. District Court for the District of Minn. (June 2018)
- Panelist, “The Story of the Fourteenth Amendment and America’s Second Founding,” National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, PA (April 2018)
- Panelist, “The Tenth Anniversary of Heller,” Teleforum Federalist Society, Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group (April 2018)
- Panelist, “The Second Amendment and Second Class Rights,” Southern Illinois University School of Law, Carbondale, IL (April 2018)
- Panelist, “American Universities, Monuments, and the Legacies of Slavery,” Provost Symposium, Duke University (March 2018)
- Speaker, “The Positive Second Amendment,” Simon Lecture, Loyola University School of Law, Chicago, IL (March 2018)
- Speaker, “The Civil Rights of 1866,” Duke BLSA Black History Month Series, Duke Law School (Feb. 2018)
- Moderator, “Guns in American Society,” Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT (Oct. 2017)
- Speaker, “The Positive Thirteenth Amendment,” American Constitution Society Constitution Day Address, Duke Law School (Sept. 2017)
- Moderator, “Religious Commitment and the Profession,” Duke Law School (Sept. 2017)
- Panelist, “Section 1983 & Qualified Immunity,” Federal Judicial Center, Cleveland, OH (May 2017)
- Panelist, “Counteracting Islamophobia: Rights, Policy, and Next Steps,” Duke Law School (Feb. 2017)
- Moderator, “Class Action Settlement Conference,” Center for Judicial Studies, San Diego, CA (Oct. 2016)
- Panelist, “Guns and the Supreme Court: The Influence of History,” Aspen Institute, Washington DC (Sept. 2016)
- Debater, “The Second Amendment Should Be Amended,” Berkeley Forum, University of California, Berkeley, CA (Aug. 2016)
- Organizer, with Joseph Blocher and Eric Ruben of the Brennan Center for Justice, “The Second Generation of Second Amendment Law and Policy,” NYU/Brennan Center, NYC, NY (April 2016)
- Panelist, “Gun Control: Past, Present and Future,” Duke Law School (March 2016)
- Organizer, Panel Honoring Justice Antonin Scalia, Duke Law School (Feb. 2016)
- Organizer and Panelist, “The Thirteenth Amendment and Civil Rights: A Celebration of 150 Years,” Duke Law School (Nov. 2015)
- Panelist, “Protecting the Right to Bear Arms: History and Challenges,” Heritage Foundation/Georgetown Law Center, Washington, DC (Nov. 2015)
- Presenter, “The Declaration of Independence as a Continuity Tender,” at “The Declaration of Independence and the Nation that Followed,” National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, PA (April 2015)
- Panelist, “Race and Firearms: A Conversation with Historian Clayton Cramer and Duke Law Professor Darrell Miller,” Duke Law School (April 2015)
- Moderator, “Pluralism in the Private Sector,” Duke Law School (Feb. 2015)
- Coordinator, Moderator, and Panelist, “Teach-In on Policing, Civil Rights, and Race,” Duke Law School (Feb. 2015)
- Presenter, “The City as a Self-Defense Institution,” The Fordham Comparative Urban Law Conference, London, England (June 2014)
- Panelist, “Preventing Gun Violence: The Problem, Solutions, and What the Second Amendment Allows,” ABA/William Mitchell Law School, St. Paul, MN (June 2014)
- Presenter, “Second Amendment Institutions,” Brooklyn Law School Workshop (April 2014)
- Moderator, “Hobby Lobby, Healthcare and Religious Expression,” Duke Law School (March 2014)
- Presenter, “Guns and Roses: The Past, Present, and Future of Firearm Rights and Regulations in North Carolina,” North Carolina Bar Association CLE Program (March 2014)
- Panelist, “Locked & Loaded: Charlotte Law Review's Symposium on Gun Rights and Gun Control,” Charlotte Law School (March 2014)
- Panelist, “Second Amendment Traditionalism and Desuetude,” Duke Law School Roundtable on Custom, Convention, and Tradition in Constitutional Law (Nov. 2013)
Educational and Civic Activities
- Council Member, American Law Institute (2024-present)
- Duke University Review Committee for Dean Kerry Abrams (2021)
- Faculty Director, A.B. Duke Memorial Scholarship (2018-2021)
- Office of University Scholars and Fellows, Duke University (2015-2021)
- Faculty consultant for Rhodes, Marshall & Mitchell scholarships
- University Judicial Board (2019-2023; Chair 2021-2023)
- Advisor, Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy (2015-present)
- Entry Level Appointments Committee, Duke Law School (2016-2017, 2017-2018, Chair 2018-2019, ex-officio 2020-2021, ex-officio 2021-2022)
- Lateral Appointments Committee, Duke Law School (2013-2104, 2014-2015, 2015-2016, 2023-2024)
- Clerkships Committee, Duke Law School (2015-2016)
- Workshop Committee, Duke Law School (2019-2020, 2020-2021, ex officio 2021-2022)
- Admissions Committee, Duke Law School (2014-2015, 2017-2018)
- Academic Council, Duke University (2015-2020)
- Reporter, Civil Justice Committee, N.C. Comm’n on the Admin. of Law & Justice (2015-2016)
Memberships
- American Law Institute
- Life Member, U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference
- American Bar Association
- Bar Admissions: State of Ohio, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit; U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio; U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio