Professor G. Robert Blakey, the nation’s foremost authority on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), has served on the Notre Dame Law School faculty for more than 20 years, from 1964 to 1969 and since 1980. He teaches in the areas of criminal law and procedure, federal criminal law and procedure, terrorism, and jurisprudence. He earned his B.A. cum laude and his J.D. from Notre Dame in 1957 and 1960, respectively. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Order of the Coif. While in law school, he served as associate editor of the law review. Admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia, North Carolina and Colorado as well as the Supreme Court, Professor Blakey was selected to participate in the Attorney General’s Honors Program at the U.S. Department of Justice in 1960, and worked as a Special Attorney at the Department of Justice in the Organized Crime & Racketeering Section from 1960 to 1964. He also served as a professor of law and director of the Cornell Institute on Organized Crime at Cornell Law School (1973-80).

Professor Blakey’s extensive legislative drafting experience resulted in the passage of the Crime Control Act of 1973, the Omnibus Crime Control Act of 1970 and the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, Title IX of which is known as "RICO". He has been personally involved in drafting and implementing RICO-type legislation in 22 of the more than 30 states that have enacted racketeering laws. He frequently argues in or consults on cases involving RICO statutes at both the federal and state levels, including several cases before the United States Supreme Court: Humana v. Forsyth, 525 U.S. 299 (1999); NOW v. Scheidler, 510 U.S. 249 (1994); Reves v. Ernst & Young, 507 U.S. 170 (1993); Holmes v. Securities Investor Protection Corp., 503 U.S. 258 (1992); Tafflin v. Levitt, 493 U.S. 455 (1989); H.J., Inc. v. Northwestern Bell Telephone Co., 492 U.S. 229 (1989); Fort Wayne Books, Inc. v. Indiana, 489 U.S. 46 (1988); and Sedima S.P.R.L. v. Imrex Co., 473 U.S. 479 (1985).

Professor Blakey has considerable expertise in federal and state wiretapping statutes as well. He helped draft and secure passage of Title III on wiretapping of the federal 1968 Crime Control Act, and has been personally involved in drafting and implementing wiretapping legislation in 39 of the 43 states that have enacted such laws.

His other activities include extensive work investigating the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He served as chief counsel and staff director to the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations from 1977 to 1979, and helped to draft the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992.

He has held numerous special-consultant or counsel positions within the federal government, including the President’s Commission for Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice (1966-67), the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee,Title III on wiretapping and electronic surveillance (1967-68), the National Commission on the Reform of the Federal Penal Law (1968), the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Criminal Laws and Procedures (1969-73)(chief counsel), the National Commission on the Review of Policy Toward Gambling (1974-76), the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee (white-collar crime) (1985-86), and the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, (white-collar crime and RICO reform) (1988).

He has actively participated in a number of professional organizations including the ABA’s Project for Minimum Standards in Criminal Justice, Electronic Surveillance (reporter 1967-68), the National Commission on the Review of Federal and State Law Relating to Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance (presidential appointment 1974-75), the Twentieth Century Fund, Task Force on Legalized Gambling (member 1974), the National Advisory Committee on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, Task Force on Organized Crime (attorney general appointment 1976), and the ABA’s RICO Cases Committee (vice chair 1985).

Professor Blakey has received a number of awards for his professional achievements as well as his teaching, including: Legal Award, Association of Federal Investigators (1969); Award of Merit, National Academy of Forensic Sciences (1979); Appreciation Award, Federal Bureau of Investigation (1985); NDLS Distinguished Teaching Award (1989); Public Justice Achievement Award, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice (1995); and Charles Crutchfield Professional Excellence Award, NDLS Black Law Students Association (1996). Professor Blakey is also a member of the American Law Institute.

He currently teaches classes on Jurisprudence and Constitutional Criminal Procedure at Notre Dame Law School.