Wesley Oliver is an Associate Professor of Law at Widener's Harrisburg campus. Professor Oliver received his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Virginia, an LL.M. from Yale Law School and is presently a candidate for the J.S.D. degree from Yale. At Widener, Professor Oliver teaches courses on constitutional law, criminal law and criminal procedure. He has previously served on the faculties of the Tulane Law School, the University of Maine School of Law, the McGill University Faculty of Law in Montreal, Canada and the Harvard Law School where he taught criminal law with Professor Alan Dershowitz. Prior to entering academia, he was a member of the firm Edwards, Simmons & Oliver in Nashville, Tennessee, primarily handling criminal appeals. As a practicing lawyer and an academic, Professor Oliver has frequently represented the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Association of Federal Defenders as amicus curiae in matters before the United States Supreme Court. Professor Oliver writes in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure, constitutional law, and legal history.
Constitutional Law
America's First Wiretapping Controversy in Context and As Context, Hamline Law Review (2011)
Material Witness Detentions After Al-Kidd, Kentucky Law Journal -- Forthcoming (2011)
The Supreme Court’s decision in Ashcroft v. al-Kidd was a tempest in a teapot. The...
The Modern History of Probable Cause, Tennessee Law Review (2011)
It is frequently assumed that probable cause, roughly as we understand it today, has, since...
The Neglected History of Criminal Procedure, 1850-1940, Rutgers Law Review (2010)
Originalism has focused the attention of courts and academics on Framing Era history to interpret...
Editorial, Here’s Why I Was a Campaign Volunteer, Patriot News (Harrisburg, PA) (2008)
Criminal Law and Procedure
Material Witness Detentions After Al-Kidd, Kentucky Law Journal -- Forthcoming (2011)
The Supreme Court’s decision in Ashcroft v. al-Kidd was a tempest in a teapot. The...
The Modern History of Probable Cause, Tennessee Law Review (2011)
It is frequently assumed that probable cause, roughly as we understand it today, has, since...
Brief of Amicus Curiae Wesley MacNeil Oliver in Support of the Petition for Writ of Certiorari (2010)
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held that a lawsuit...
The Neglected History of Criminal Procedure, 1850-1940, Rutgers Law Review (2010)
Originalism has focused the attention of courts and academics on Framing Era history to interpret...
Portland, Prohibition and Probable Cause: Maine's Role in Shaping Modern Criminal Procedure, Maine Bar Journal (2008)
At the time the Constitution was written, police officers had very little power. In most...
Legal History
America's First Wiretapping Controversy in Context and As Context, Hamline Law Review (2011)
The Neglected History of Criminal Procedure, 1850-1940, Rutgers Law Review (2010)
Originalism has focused the attention of courts and academics on Framing Era history to interpret...
Civil Rights
Material Witness Detentions After Al-Kidd, Kentucky Law Journal -- Forthcoming (2011)
The Supreme Court’s decision in Ashcroft v. al-Kidd was a tempest in a teapot. The...