Retired law professor Yale Kamisar is known as the Father of the Miranda Case.

As one of the nation’s foremost authorities on criminal procedure, Kamisar has written several seminal articles and texts about the administration of criminal justice and the “politics of crime.”

Though retired from the Law School after nearly 40 years, Kamisar’s colleagues and students continue to recognize his contributions.

The Michigan Law Review dedicated its August 2004 issue to Kamisar, as did The Ohio State University’s Journal of Criminal Law. Both journals included articles filled with accolades and good-natured ribbing from colleagues and students.

“As far as I know I am the only person to have two journals pay tribute to him,” says Kamisar, a Clarence Darrow Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the Law School.

Kamisar never has visited Ohio State and has no connection to the University.

“It’s quite unusual,” he says.

Journal guest editor Marc Spindelman says the idea for a tribute came to him during a retirement dinner for Kamisar. Spindelman, a U-M law school alum, says Kamisar has touched the personal and professional lives of many people in the law field.

“Thinking about the possibility that some of the tributes to Kamisar would go unpublished was the inspiration,” says Spindelman. “To leave it at that was to leave people who had debts to pay to Yale, things to give and deep feeling of affection without a place to express them publicly.”

Kamisar now is a tenured professor at the University of San Diego, where he teaches one criminal procedures class during the semester from January through May.

The rest of the year is spent in Ann Arbor, where Kamisar still maintains an office and says he sometimes taps the law school librarians to assist him with his work.

“All my life I’ve been hustling to get some research leave and now I have a lot,” jokes Kamisar, who has many times been quoted or cited by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kamisar, a Bronx, N.Y., native, is a graduate of New York University and Columbia Law School. He taught at the University of Minnesota Law School from 1957-64 and joined the U-M law faculty in 1965.

Since the mid-1960s, Kamisar has researched police interrogation and confessions. He also has been a vigorous defender of the “exclusionary rule” against attacks by courts and scholars. In addition, he is a noted expert on issues related to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.

In 1996 he was awarded the American Bar Foundation Award for his lifetime contributions to research and writing in law and government.

Kamisar has published numerous articles and is co-author of two widely used casebooks: “Modern Criminal Procedure: Cases, Comments & Questions,” 10 editions, and “Constitutional Law: Cases, Comments and Questions,” nine editions.