Richard Boldt has been on the Maryland Carey Law faculty since 1989. He teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, criminal law, mental disability law, and torts. Professor Boldt has written extensively on drug treatment courts and other problem-solving courts. His work has been published in leading law journals, including the Maryland Law Review, the Journal of Health Care Law & Policy, the Washington University Law Quarterly, Criminal Justice Ethics, the Michigan Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Hastings Law Journal, and the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.

Professor Boldt received an AB summa cum laude from Columbia College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He obtained his law degree from Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law and Policy Review. After practicing at the Legal Action Center, a public interest law firm in New York City, Professor Boldt began his academic career at the Northern Illinois University College of Law. He also held a faculty position at the City University of New York Law School and was a visiting professor at Brooklyn Law School. He served as associate dean of Maryland Carey Law from 2002 to 2006 and again in 2017. Professor Boldt was recognized by the University of Maryland, Baltimore as Educator of the Year in 2022.

Book Chapters

Problem-Solving Courts, in Academy for Justice: Reforming Criminal Justice, Vol. 3: Pretrial and Trial Processes (Erik Luna ed., 2017).

A Circumspect Look at Problem-Solving Courts, in Problem-Solving Courts: Justice for the Twenty-first Century? 13 (Paul Higgins & Mitchell B. Mackinem eds., 2009) Abstract

The Adversary System and Attorney Role in the Drug Treatment Court Movement, in Drug Courts in Theory and in Practice 115 (James L. Nolan ed., 2001).

Articles

Interference with the Democratic Process as Public Nuisance, Maryland Law Review (forthcoming 2025) (with Donald Gifford). Abstract

Uneasy Alignments: A Multidisciplinary Exploration of Mental Health and Legal Systems Entanglements, 27 Journal of Health Care Law & Policy 1 (2024) (with Corey Shdaimah). Abstract

When Originalism Failed: Lessons from Tort Law, 51 Florida State University Law Review 1 (2024) (with Donald G. Gifford & Christopher J. Robinette). Abstract

Conditional Release and Consent to Treatment, 48 Law & Psychology Review 39 (2024). Abstract

Reasoned Judgment, 82 Maryland Law Review Online 104 (2023). Abstract

Mental Health Care and Intimate Partner Violence: Unasked Questions, 25 Journal of Health Care Law & Policy 225 (2022) (with Delaney E. Anderson). Abstract

Criminalization and Normalization: Some Thoughts About Offenders with Serious Mental Illness, 71 Florida Law Review Forum 229 (2021). Abstract

Book Review, Kerwin Kaye, Enforcing Freedom: Drug Courts, Therapeutic Communities, and the Intimacies of the State, 17 Law, Culture & the Humanities 377 (2021).

Constitutional Structure, Institutional Relationships and Text: Revisiting Charles Black's White Lectures, 54 Loyola L.A. Law Review 675 (2021). Abstract

Community Health Workers and Behavioral Health Care, 23 Journal of Health Care Law & Policy 1 (2020) (with Eleanor T. Chung). Abstract

Emergency Detention and Involuntary Hospitalization: Assessing the Front End of the Civil Commitment Process, 10 Drexel Law Review 1 (2018).

Constitutional Incorporation: A Consideration of the Judicial Function in State and Federal Constitutional Interpretation, 76 Maryland Law Review 309 (2017) (with Dan Friedman). Abstract

The “Voluntary” Inpatient Treatment of Adults Under Guardianship, 60 Villanova Law Review 1 (2015). Abstract

Perspectives on Outpatient Commitment, 49 New England Law Review 39 (2014). Abstract

Problem-Solving Courts and Pragmatism, 73 Maryland Law Review 1120 (2014). Abstract

Decisional Minimalism and the Judicial Evaluation of Gun Regulations, 71 Maryland Law Review 1177 (2012). Abstract

Adolescent Decision Making: Legal Issues with Respect to Treatment for Substance Misuse and Mental Illness, 15 Journal of Health Care Law & Policy 75 (2012). Abstract

Drug Policy in Context: Rhetoric and Practice in the United States and the United Kingdom, 62 South Carolina Law Review 261 (2011). Abstract

Confidentiality of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Treatment Information for Emergency Department and Trauma Center Patients, 20 Health Matrix 325 (2010). Abstract

The "Tomahawk" and the "Healing Balm": Drug Treatment Courts in Theory and Practice, 10 University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender & Class 45 (2010) Abstract

Introduction: Obstacles to the Development and Use of Pharmacotherapies for Addiction, 13 Journal of Health Care Law & Policy 1 (2010). Abstract

Juristocracy in the Trenches: Problem-Solving Judges and Therapeutic Jurisprudence in Drug Treatment Courts and Unified Family Courts, 65 Maryland Law Review 82 (2006) (with Jana Singer). Abstract

Review Essay: Excuse Theory Through a Liberal Lens, 25 Criminal Justice Ethics 39 (2006). Abstract

Public Education as Public Space: Some Reflections on the Unfinished Work of Marc Feldman, 61 Maryland Law Review 13 (2002). Abstract

Evaluating Histories of Substance Abuse in Cases Involving the Termination of Parental Rights, 3 Journal of Health Care Law & Policy 135 (1999). Abstract

Rehabilitative Punishment and the Drug Treatment Court Movement, 76 Washington University Law Quarterly 1205 (1998). Abstract

Book Review: The Relationship Between Theory and Practice in the Study of Punishment, 7 Criminal Law Forum 435 (1996) (reviewing A Reader on Punishment, R.A. Duff & David Garland, eds. 1994) Abstract

A Study in Regulatory Method, Local Political Cultures, and Jurisprudential Voice: The Application of Federal Confidentiality Law to Project Head Start, 93 Michigan Law Review 2325 (1995). Abstract

The Faces of Law in Theory and Practice: Doctrine, Rhetoric, and Social Context, 43 Hastings Law Journal 1111 (1992) (with Marc Feldman). Abstract

The Construction of Responsibility in the Criminal Law, 140 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 2245 (1992), reprinted in part in Readings in Criminal Law 80 (Russell L. Weaver et al. eds., 1998). Abstract

Restitution, Criminal Law, and the Ideology of Individuality, 77 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 969 (1986). Abstract

Uneasy Alignments: A Multidisciplinary Exploration of Mental Health and Legal Systems Entanglements, 27 Journal of Health Care Law & Policy 1 (2024) (with Corey Shdaimah). Abstract

Others

Dickerson v. United States, in Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (David S. Tanenhaus ed., 2008).