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G. Robert Blakey

William and Dorothy O’Neill Professor of Law

Office Number: 3102 Eck Hall of Law
Telephone: 574.631.5717
Fax: 574.631.4197
Email: G.R.Blakey.1@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: LuAnn Nate

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.

About The O’Neill Chair

The William and Dorothy O’Neill Chair in Law, established in 1985, is a gift of the O’Neill Family. Mr. O’Neill was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated from the University in 1928. He founded Leaseway Transportation Corporation, one of the nation’s largest companies serving motor-vehicle transportation. A former national polo champion, he served as trustee as well as the first lay president of the Gilmour Academy in Gate Mills, Ohio. He died in 1983.

Mrs. O’Neill, also a Cleveland native, graduated from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1931, with a bachelor’s degree in music. She resides in Beachwood, Ohio.

In the News

LAW 70359, Constitutional Criminal Procedure

LAW70362, Federal Criminal Law

LAW70366, Federal Criminal Procedure

LAW70434, Anti-Terrorism & Criminal Enforcement

LAW70815, Jurisprudence

Faculty Expertise Areas

  • Constitutional civil procedure
  • Criminal law and procedure
  • Federal criminal law and procedure
  • Organized crime
  • RICO
  • White collar crime

Books

The Plot to Kill the President, with R. Billings (Times Books 1981), reprinted as Fatal Hour:The Assassination of President Kennedy by Organized Crime (Berkley 1992).

Organized Crime in the United States: A Review of The Public Record on Organized Crime (NILE 1982).

The Development of the Law of Gambling: 1776-1976 (NILE 1978).

Racket Bureaus: Investigation and Prosecution of Organized Crime, with R. Goldstock and C. Rogovin (NILE 1978).

Segments

Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), in The Encyclopedia of the United States Congress, vol. 3, 1659 (1995).

Warren Commission, in The Encyclopedia of the American Presidency, vol. 4, 1590 (1994).

Definition of Organized Crime in Statutes and Law Enforcement Administration, in The Impact: Organized Crime Today, Report of the President’s Commission on Organized Crime 511 (1986).

Articles

RICO: The Genesis of an Idea, 9 Trends in Organized Crime 8-34 (2006).

Threats, Free Speech, and the Jurisprudence of the Federal Criminal Law, 2002 Brigham Young University L. Rev. 829

Of Characterization and Other Matters: Thoughts about Multiple Damages, 60 Law and Contemporary Problems 101 (1998).

Reflections on Reves v. Ernst & Young: Its Meaning and Impact on Substantive, Accessory, Aiding, Abetting and Conspiracy Liability Under RICO, with Kevin P. Roddy, 33 American Criminal Law Review 1345 (Special Edition 1996).

Federal Criminal Law: The Need, Not for Revised Constitutional Theory or New Congressional Statutes, But the Exercise of Responsible Prosecutive Discretion, 46 Hastings Law Journal 1175 (1995).

An Analysis of the Myths that Bolster Efforts to Rewrite RICO and the Various Proposals for Reform: ‘Mother of God — is this the end of RICO?’ with T. Perry, 43 Vanderbilt Law Review 851 (1990).

Equitable Relief Under Civil RICO: Reflections on Religious Technology Center v. Wollersheim; Will Civil RICO be Effective Only Against White-Collar Crime? with S. Cessar, 62 Notre Dame Law Review 526 (1987).

Gaming, Lotteries, and Wagering: The Pre-Revolutionary Roots of the Law of Gambling, 16 Rutgers Law Journal 211 (1985).

The RICO Civil Fraud Action in Context: Reflections on Bennett v. Berg, 58 Notre Dame Law Review 237 (1982).

Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO): Basic Concepts — Criminal and Civil Remedies, with B. Gettings, 53 Temple Law Quarterly 1009 (1980).

The Development of the Federal Law of Gambling, with H. Kurland, 63 Cornell Law Review 923 (1978).

Criminal Redistribution of Stolen Property: The Need for Law Reform, with M. Goldsmith, 74 Michigan Law Review 1511 (1976).

The Rule of Announcement and Unlawful Entry: Miller v. United States and Ker v. California, 112 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 499 (1964).

Reports

Standards Relating to Electronic Surveillance, American Bar Association Project, Minimum Standards in Criminal Justice (ABA Advisory Commission on the Police Function 1968 (tentative draft), 1972 (approved draft)).

Aspects of the Evidence Gathering Process in Organized Crime Cases, in President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Task Force Report: Organized Crime, at 80 (1967).

Aspects of the Evidence Gathering Process in Organized Crime Cases, in President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Task Force Report: Organized Crime, at 80 (1967).