Rick Tepker is the first member of the OU law faculty to appear, argue and win a case before the United States Supreme Court. In 1987, the Court appointed Tepker as counsel for petitioner, an indigent juvenile sentenced to death. Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 815 (1988). It was the first case in which an American court overturned a death sentence on constitutional grounds because the condemned was too young at the time of the crime.
Contributions to Books
Law Journal Articles
The Dean Takes His Stand: Julian Monnet's 1912 Harvard Law Review Article Denouncing Oklahoma's Discriminatory Grandfather Clause, Oklahoma Law Review (2010)
Lincoln at 200: On Lincoln's Statesmanship, Dred Scott and Constitutional Evil, Oklahoma Law Review (2008)
Democracy's Paradox: Popular Rule as a Constitutional Limit on Foreign Policy Promoting Popular Rule, Oklahoma Law Review (2005)
Presentations
Marbury v. Madison After Two Hundred Years, Annual Meeting of the American College of Trial Lawyers (2003)
The Report of the Secretary: The 1998-99 Term of the U.S. Supreme Court, Anual Meeting of American Bar Association, Section of Labor & Employment Law (1999)
The 1998-99 Term of the U.S. Supreme Court: The Law of Work, Los Angeles County Bar Association (1999)