Darrell A. H. Miller
Melvin G. Shimm Distinguished Professor of Law
Darrell A. H. Miller writes and teaches in the areas 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 the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Courts of Appeals, the United States District Courts, and in congressional testimony and legal briefs. With Joseph Blocher, he’s the author of The Positive Second Amendment: Rights, Regulation, and the Future of Heller (Cambridge University Press, 2018).
Miller began his academic career at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where he twice received the Goldman Award for Excellence in Teaching. Prior to joining the academy, Miller practiced complex and appellate litigation in Columbus, Ohio. He is a former clerk to Judge R. Guy Cole, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Miller graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. In addition to his law degree, Miller holds degrees from Oxford University, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar, and from Anderson University.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
- Melvin G. Shimm Distinguished Professor of Law, Law School, Duke University 2017
- Professor of Law, Law School, Duke University 2013
Contact Information
- Duke Law School 210 Science Dr, Box 90362, Durham, NC 27708
- Duke Law School Room 3014, Box 90362, Durham, NC 27708
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dmiller@law.duke.edu
(919) 613-8517
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See the Duke Law profile page
- Background
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Education, Training, & Certifications
- J.D., Harvard University 2001
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Previous Appointments & Affiliations
- Visiting Professor in the School of Law, Law School, Duke University 2011 - 2013
- Recognition
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In the News
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JAN 11, 2023 Duke Magazine -
JUL 5, 2022 -
MAY 25, 2022 -
OCT 27, 2021 Duke School of Law -
JAN 7, 2021 -
FEB 22, 2019 -
FEB 12, 2019 Duke Law -
OCT 5, 2018 School of Law -
JUL 11, 2016 The Trace -
JUL 11, 2016 The Trace -
FEB 16, 2015 The News & Observer -
FEB 16, 2015 The News & Observer -
DEC 5, 2014 The Wall Street Journal -
JUL 22, 2014 The New York Times Magazine -
JUL 1, 2014 The Hill -
MAY 8, 2014 American Constitution Society Blog -
MAR 31, 2014 U.S. News & World Report -
MAR 26, 2014 MedPageToday -
MAR 24, 2014 -
SEP 25, 2013
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- Expertise
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Global Scholarship
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Expertise
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- Research
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Selected Grants
- Duke Center for Firearms Law awarded by Harold Simmons Foundation 2019 - 2020
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Fellowships, Supported Research, & Other Grants
- Racial Inequality Research Grant: Race & The History of North Carolina's Gun Laws awarded by Duke Office of Provost 2022
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External Relationships
- American Constitution Society
- Center for the Study of Guns & Society at Wesleyan University
- MomsRising Together & MomsRising Education Fund
- NC Thought Leadership
- National Constitution Center
- Newsday
- RAND Corporation
- Washington Post
- West Academic Press
- Publications & Artistic Works
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Selected Publications
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Books
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Miller, Darrell A., Jacob D. Charles, Jody Madeira, and Joseph Blocher. Firearms Law and the Second Amendment (Accepted). Foundation Press, 2023.
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Miller, D., J. Charles, and J. Blocher. New Histories of Gun Rights and Regulation: Essays on the Place of Guns in American Law (Accepted). Oxford University Press, 2021.
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Miller, D., and J. Blocher. The Positive Second Amendment: Rights, Regulation, and the Future of Heller. Cambridge University Press, 2018.Link to Item
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Academic Articles
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Miller, Darrell A., Joseph Blocher, and Jacob D. Charles. “"A Map Is Not The Territory”: The Theory and Future of the Sensitive Places Doctrine (Accepted).” New York University Law Review Online, 2023.
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Miller, Darrell A., Joseph Blocher, and Jacob D. Charles. “Firearms Law and Scholarship Beyond Bodies and Bullets (Accepted).” Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 2023.
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Miller, Darrell A., and Joseph Blocher. “Manufacturing Outliers (Accepted).” Supreme Court Review, 2023.
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Miller, D., and J. Charles. “Violence and Nondelegation.” Harvard Law Review Forum 135 (2022): 463–72.Link to Item
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Miller, D., and J. Tucker. “Common Use, Lineage, and Lethality.” Uc Davis Law Review 55, no. 5 (2022): 2495–2513.Link to Item
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Miller, Darrell A. “Estoppel by Nonviolence.” Law and Contemporary Problems 85, no. 3 (2022): 69–85.Link to Item
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Miller, D., and D. Fagundes. “The City’s Second Amendment.” Cornell Law Review 106, no. 1 (2021): 677–744.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Second Amendment Equilibria.” Northwestern University Law Review 116, no. 1 (2021): 239–73.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Tainted Precedent.” Arkansas Law Review 74, no. 2 (2021): 291–96.Link to Item
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Miller, D., J. Blocher, S. Buell, and J. Charles. “Pointing Guns.” Texas Law Review 99, no. 6 (2021): 1173–1200.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Constitutional Pronouns.” Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy 27, no. 1 (2020): 227–34.Link to Item
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Miller, D., J. Blocher, and J. Charles. “The Geography of a Constitutional Right: Gun Rights Outside the Home.” Law and Contemporary Problems 83, no. 3 (2020): i–vii.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Owning Heller.” University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy Forum 1 (2019): 1–17.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Constitutional Conflict and Sensitive Places.” William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 28, no. 2 (2019): 459–87.Link to Item
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Miller, D., and J. Blocher. “Stevens, J., Dissenting: The Legacy of Heller.” Judicature 103, no. 3 (2019): 9–13.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Comments on an Amendment to Repeal the Natural Born Citizen Clause.” Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy 13, no. 2 (2018): 77–82.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Romanticism Meets Realism in Second Amendment Adjudication.” Duke Law Journal Online 68 (2018).Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Dignity and Second Amendment Enforcement - Response to William D. Araiza's, Arming the Second Amendment and Enforcing the Fourteenth.” Washington and Lee Law Review Online 74 (2018): 438–49.
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Miller, D., and J. Blocher. “The Second Amendment as Positive Law.” Charleston Law Review 13, no. 2 (2018): 103–23.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Self-Defense, Defense of Others, and the State.” Law and Contemporary Problems 80 (2017): 85–102.Link to Item
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Miller, D., and E. Ruben. “Preface: The Second Generation of Second Amendment Law & Policy.” Law and Contemporary Problems 80, no. 2 (2017): 1–9.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Fear and Firearms.” Tulsa Law Review 52 (2017): 553–65.Link to Item
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Blocher, J., and D. Miller. “What is Gun Control? Direct Burdens, Incidental Burdens, and the Boundaries of the Second Amendment.” University of Chicago Law Review 83 (2016): 295–355.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Continuity and the Declaration of Independence.” University of Southern California Law Review 89 (2016): 601–19.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Institutions and the Second Amendment.” Duke Law Journal 66 (2016): 69–119.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Second Amendment Traditionalism and Desuetude.” Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy 14 (2016): 223.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “The Thirteenth Amendment, Disparate Impact, and Empathy Deficits.” Seattle University Law Review 39 (2016): 847–57.Link to Item
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Miller, D., and J. Blocher. “Lethality, Public Carry, and Adequate Alternatives.” Harvard Journal on Legislation 53 (2016): 279–301.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Book Review.” Political Science Quarterly 131, no. 4 (2016): 882–83.
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Miller, D. “Peruta, the Home-Bound Second Amendment, and Fractal Originalism.” Harvard Law Review Forum 127 (2014): 238–42.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Text, History, and Tradition: What the Seventh Amendment Can Teach Us About the Second.” Yale Law Journal 122 (2013): 852–938.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Analogies and Institutions in the First and Second Amendments: A Response to Professor Magarian.” Texas Law Review, 2013, 137–51.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Racial Cartels and the Thirteenth Amendment Enforcement Power.” Kentucky Law Journal 100 (2012): 23–41.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Book Review.” American Journal of Legal History 52 (2012): 379–82.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “The Thirteenth Amendment and the Regulation of Custom.” Columbia Law Review 112 (2012): 1811–54.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Guns, Inc.: Citizens United, McDonald, and the Future of Corporate Constitutional Rights.” New York University Law Review 86 (2011): 887–957.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Retail Rebellion and the Second Amendment.” Indiana Law Journal 86 (2011): 939–77.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “Iqbal and Empathy.” Umkc Law Review 78 (2010): 999–1013.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “A Short Reply to Professor Volokh.” Columbia Law Review Sidebar 109 (2009): 105–6.
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Miller, D. “Guns as Smut: Defending the Home-Bound Second Amendment.” Columbia Law Review 109 (2009): 1278–1356.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “White Cartels, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and the History of Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.” Fordham Law Review 77 (2008): 999–1050.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “State DOMAs, Neutral Principles, and the Mobius of State Action.” Temple Law Review 81 (2008): 967–94.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “The Stain of Slavery: Notes Toward an Attainder Theory of the Thirteenth Amendment.” University of Toledo Law Review 38, no. 3 (2007): 1011–36.
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Robboy, S. J. “BOOK REVIEWS.” Int J Gynecol Pathol 20, no. 1 (January 2001): 102.Link to Item
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Book Sections
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Miller, D. “Prohibitions on Private Armies in State Constitutions (Accepted).” In New Histories of Gun Rights and Regulation: Essays on the Place of Guns in American Law and Society. Oxford University Press, 2022.
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Miller, D. “The Expressive Second Amendment.” In Guns in Law, 48–66. University of Massachusetts Press, 2019.
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Miller, D. “The Janus of Civil Rights Law.” In The Greatest and the Grandest Act: The Civil Rights Act of 1866 from Reconstruction to Today, 234–61. Southern Illinois University Press, 2018.
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Miller, D. “A Thirteenth Amendment Agenda for the Twenty-First Century: Of Promises, Power, and Precaution.” In The Promises of Liberty: The History and Contemporary Relevance of the Thirteenth Amendment, 2010.Link to Item
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Other Articles
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Miller, D. “The Next Front in the Fight Over Guns.” Washington Post, 2022.
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Miller, D., A. Morral, and R. Smart. “State Gun Regulations Are a Messy Patchwork. The Supreme Court’s Bruen Decision Won’t Help.” The Hill, 2022.
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Miller, D., and J. Blocher. “A Supreme Court Head-Scratcher: Is a Colonial Musket ‘Analogous’ to an AR-15?” New York Times, 2022.
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Miller, Darrell A. “Bruen and Constitutional Gnosticism.” Balkinization, 2022.
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Miller, Darrell A., Rosanna Smart, and Andrew R. Morral. “Facts Still Matter, Even Before This Supreme Court.” Newsweek, 2022.
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Miller, D. ““Lineal Descendant” Analysis in Second Amendment Litigation.” Harvard Law Review Blog, 2021.
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Miller, D. “The Reconstruction Amendments’ Canonical Texts.” Balkinization, 2021.
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Miller, D. “Conservatives Sound Like Anti-racists — When the Cause Is Gun Rights.” Washington Post, 2021.
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Miller, D. “Montgomery Facing Litigation for Renaming Street After Civil Rights Leader.” Slog, 2021.
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Miller, D., and J. Blocher. “SCOTUS Taking up 2nd Amendment Case Could Mean Cuts to Broad Swaths of Gun Regulation.” Tpm Cafe, 2021.
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Miller, D. “A Simplistic Interpretation of "Defund the Police" May Embolden Vigilantes.” Newsday, 2020.
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Miller, D. “Gun Laws Were Meant to Ban Private Militants. Now, Our Hands are Tied.” Washington Post, 2020.
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Miller, D., and A. Huq. “How to Safeguard Progressive Legislation Against the Supreme Court: Poison Pills.” Washington Post, 2020.
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Miller, D., and J. Blocher. “What Firearms Law and Regulatory Scholarship Can Learn from Each Other.” The Regulatory Review, 2018.
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Miller, D. “Guard These True Monuments to Martin Luther King Jr.” Newsday, 2018.
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Reports
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Miller, Darrell A., Andrew R. Morral, and Rosanna Smart. “State Firearm Laws After Bruen.” RAND Corporation, 2022.Link to Item
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Miller, D. “African Americans and the Insurrectionary Second Amendment.” Brennan Center for Justice, 2021.Link to Item
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- Teaching & Mentoring
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Recent Courses
- LAW 229: The Law of State and Local Government 2023
- LAW 334: Civil Rights Litigation 2023
- LAW 543: State Constitutional Law and Localism 2022
- LAW 543W: State Constitutional Law and Localism, Writing Credit 2022
- LAW 551: Civil Rights Enforcement Colloquium 2022
- LAW 623: Externship Associated Research Paper 2022
- LAW 110: Civil Procedure 2021
- LAW 229: The Law of State and Local Government 2021
- LAW 334: Civil Rights Litigation 2021
- LAW 578JS: Race and the Civil Rights 2021
Some information on this profile has been compiled automatically from Duke databases and external sources. (Our About page explains how this works.) If you see a problem with the information, please write to Scholars@Duke and let us know. We will reply promptly.