In 1969, Dellinger became a professor at
Duke University School of Law. Because of his advocacy for liberal causes, his nomination was filibustered by the two conservative senators from his home state of North Carolina,
Jesse Helms and
Lauch Faircloth, but Dellinger was ultimately confirmed. The ban was overturned by the Supreme Court. In February 2008, Dellinger represented
ExxonMobil in the Supreme Court in
Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker, which addressed whether certain punitive damages are available under federal maritime law. This case relates to the
Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989. On March 5, 2010, the
Washington Post published an op-ed by Dellinger defending
Karl Thompson. In 2010, North Carolina Governor
Bev Perdue inducted Dellinger into the
Order of the Long Leaf Pine, calling him "North Carolina’s best friend, legally, that we’ve ever had." In early 2012, Dellinger represented the defendant in
United States v. Antoine Jones, in which the US Supreme Court barred the government's
warrantless use of a
GPS device on Jones' Jeep Grand Cherokee as part of a
drug trafficking investigation. Dellinger said the decision in the case was "a signal event in
Fourth Amendment history". == Personal life and death==