Academic Faculty
Full Time Teaching Faculty
John Rappaport
Professor of LawBiography
John Rappaport teaches and writes about criminal law, criminal procedure, and the criminal justice system. Most of his current research concerns American law enforcement, with topics including collective bargaining, unionization, and the labor market for law enforcement officers.
John graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2006. He clerked for Judges Stephen Reinhardt and Paul Watford of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the US Supreme Court. He also practiced in the Capital Habeas Unit of the Los Angeles Federal Public Defender’s office and as a litigator at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP. He studied mathematics as an undergraduate, earning his degree with distinction from Stanford University. Before joining the faculty, John taught at the Law School as a Bigelow Fellow and Lecturer in Law.
Education
Harvard Law School
JD, magna cum laude, June 2006
Stanford University
BS in mathematics with distinction, June 2002
Experience
The University of Chicago Law School
Professor of Law, 2020-present
Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar, 2019-present
Assistant Professor of Law, 2015-2020
Harry A. Bigelow Teaching Fellow & Lecturer in Law, 2013-2015
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, San Francisco, CA
Law clerk, the Honorable Paul J. Watford, January-June 2013
Law clerk, the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt, 2006-2007
Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, Los Angeles, CA
Litigation Associate, 2010-2012
Supreme Court of the United States
Law clerk, the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 2009-2010
Office of the Federal Public Defender, Los Angeles, CA
Deputy Federal Public Defender, Capital Habeas Unit, 2007-2009
American Civil Liberties Union, New York, NY
National Legal Department, Legal Intern, 2005
ACLU of Michigan, Detroit, MI
Legal Intern, 2004
US Department of Justice, Washington, DC
Civil Rights Division, Educational Opportunities Section, Legal Intern, 2004
Publications
Books (Author)
- Criminal Law and the American Penal System (Aspen, 2023) (with Andrew M. Crespo) (forthcoming).
Journal Articles
- "Second-Order Regulation of Law Enforcement," 103 California Law Review 205 (2015). ssrn cu
- "Unbundling Criminal Trial Rights," 82 University of Chicago Law Review 181 (2015). ssrn cu
- "How Private Insurers Regulate Public Police," 130 Harvard Law Review 1539 (2017). ssrn cu
- "An Insurance-Based Typology of Police Misconduct," 2016 University of Chicago Legal Forum 369 (2016). ssrn cu
- "The Structural Function of the Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel of Choice," 2017 Supreme Court Review 117 (2017). ssrn cu www
- "Criminal Justice, Inc.," 118 Columbia Law Review 2251 (2018). ssrn cu www
- "Some Doubts About "Democratizing" Criminal Justice," 87 University of Chicago Law Review 711 (2020). ssrn www
- "The Wandering Officer," 129 Yale Law Journal 1676 (2020) (with Ben Grunwald). ssrn www
- "Is Police Behavior Getting Worse? Data Selection and the Measurement of Policing Harms," 49 Journal of Legal Studies 153 (2020) (with Aurelie Ouss). ssrn www
- "Collective Bargaining Rights and Police Misconduct: Evidence from Florida," 38 Journal of Law, Economics and Organization 1 (2022) (with Dhammika Dharmapala & Richard H. McAdams ). ssrn www
- "Introduction: This Violent City? Urban Violence in Chicago and Beyond," 89 University of Chicago Law Review 303 (2022) (with Aziz Z. Huq).
- "Police Agencies on Facebook Overreport on Black Suspects," 119 Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences of the United States Of America 1 (2022) (with Ben Grunwald & Julian Nyarko ). www
Other Publications
- "Cops Can Ignore Black Lives Matter Protesters. They Can’t Ignore Their Insurers," Washington Post, May 4, 2016. www
- "Does the Path to True Police Reform Run Through Liability Insurers?," Washington Post, April 11, 2016. www
- "How Private Insurers Regulate Public Police," CLS Blue Sky Blog, March 3, 2016. www
- "How the Insurance Industry Could Reform American Policing," Washington Post, March 1, 2016. www
- "Jeff Sessions Is Scapegoating the ACLU for Chicago’s Murder Rate Spike," Slate, May 11, 2018. www
- "Collective Bargaining and Police Misconduct: Evidence from Florida," CATO Institute Research Briefs in Economic Policy, July 10, 2019 (with Dhammika Dharmapala & Richard H. McAdams ). www
- "It Will Take More Than the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to Fix Our Broken System," Washington Post, February 5, 2021 (with Ben Grunwald). www
- "The Future of Police Liability," The Hill, March 28, 2021. www
Presentations
- 2022 – 2023: Duke University School of Law Empirical Criminal Law Roundtable
- 2021 – 2022: Decarceration Law Professors Workshop, Law of the Police Conference, University of Chicago Law School Faculty Work-in-Progress, University of Connecticut School of Law Insurance Law Center Policing & Insurance Symposium, Duke University School of Law Empirical Criminal Law Roundtable, American Society of Evidence-Based Policing Annual Conference, National Society for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement Annual Conference
- 2020 – 2021: University of Connecticut School of Law Insurance Law Center Webinar, Arnold Ventures Roundtable on Police Accountability, ABA-AALS-Academy for Justice Criminal Justice Roundtable, Washington University School of Law Faculty Workshop, Texas A&M Flash Webinar on Policing, Harvard Law School Labor & Worklife Program Roundtable, University of Pennsylvania Department of Criminology Seminar
- 2019 – 2020: University of Chicago Symposium on Gun Violence, Loyola Law School Policing Los Angeles Forum, University of Virginia School of Law Faculty Workshop, University of Connecticut School of Law Faculty Workshop, Yale Law Journal Legal Scholarship Workshop
- 2018 – 2019: Junior Criminal Law Faculty Roundtable, University of Chicago Law School Faculty Work-in-Progress, Criminal Justice Roundtable, Law of the Police Conference, Hebrew University Law & Economics and Criminal Justice Workshops, Conference on
- Empirical Legal Studies, CrimFest
- 2017 – 2018: Junior Criminal Law Faculty Roundtable, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Retail Industry Leaders Association Retail Asset Protection Conference, University of Chicago Law School Faculty Work-in-Progress, Association of Governmental Risk Pools Fall Educational Forum, Southeastern Association of Law Schools Annual Conference
- 2016 – 2017: Junior Criminal Law Faculty Roundtable, Northwestern Criminal Law Theory Workshop, Loyola Constitutional Law Colloquium, University of Wisconsin Law School Faculty Workshop
- 2015 – 2016: Liberty Mutual New Scholars Workshop in Insurance Law and Risk, University of Chicago Law School Faculty Work-in-Progress, Junior Criminal Law Faculty Roundtable, American Law & Economics Association Annual Meeting, League of Women Voters of
- Berrien and Cass Counties, AALS Annual Meeting Section on Insurance Law, University of Chicago Legal Forum
- 2014 – 2015: Loyola Constitutional Law Colloquium, Chicago-Area Junior Faculty Workshop, University of Chicago Law School Faculty Work-in-Progress, CrimFest, University of Chicago Law Review Symposium, University of Chicago Law School Research Colloquium, Chicago-Area Junior Faculty Workshop
Institutional Service
- Appointments Committee, 2018-2019, 2021-2022
- Bigelow Fellowship Program Co-Director, 2019-2021
- Clerkship Committee, 2015-2019
- Levi Distinguished Visiting Jurists Program Co-Organizer, 2019-2022
- Public Law Workshop Co-Organizer, 2015-2022
- University of Chicago Law Review Symposium Faculty Co-Organizer, 2019-2021
- Board of the Library of the University of Chicago, 2020-2022
- University of Chicago Police Department Independent Review Commission Chair, 2022-2023
Professional Activities & Affiliations
- Chair, National Police Early Intervention and Outcomes Research Consortium
- Referee: Journal of Legal Studies, Journal of Experimental Criminology, Law and Social
- Inquiry, Israel Science Foundation, Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center
- (Tel Aviv University)
- Member of California and various federal bars