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Akhil Reed Amar
American legal scholar From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Akhil Reed Amar (born September 6, 1958) is an American legal scholar known for his expertise in U.S. constitutional law. He is a Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, where he is a leading scholar of originalism, the U.S. Bill of Rights, and criminal procedure.[1]
Raised in California, Amar was an undergraduate in Yale College before receiving his legal education at Yale Law School. He clerked for Judge (later Justice) Stephen Breyer then became a professor at Yale Law School at the age of 26. He is one of the legal scholars most frequently cited by the U.S. Supreme Court.[2]
Amar has been active in the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society, with his work receiving awards from both organizations.[3] In 2008, a Legal Affairs poll placed him among the top 20 contemporary American legal thinkers.[4] According to a 2021 study by Fred R. Shapiro, Amar is the 18th most-cited legal scholar of all time.[5]
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Early life and education
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Amar was born on September 6, 1958, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.[6] He has two brothers, one of whom is Vikram Amar, who is also a legal scholar and was the dean of the University of Illinois College of Law.[7] His parents were medical students from India who met as students at the University of Michigan.[6] His father became a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.[6] His middle name comes from his father's mentor, Reed M. Nesbit.[6]
Amar grew up in Walnut Creek, California, and graduated from Las Lomas High School in 1976.[8] He then attended Yale University, where he double majored in history and economics.[1] He was a member of the Yale Debate Association, winning its Thacher Memorial Prize, and was a chair of the Yale Political Union.[9] He befriended future journalist Richard Brookhiser in his first year in college,[6] and graduated as a resident of Ezra Stiles College.[10] Amar graduated from Yale in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, with membership in Phi Beta Kappa.[9] He had developed a serious interest in history studying under professors Edmund Morgan and John Morton Blum, and chose to stay at the university instead of returning to California as he originally planned.[6]
In 1981, Amar entered Yale Law School, where he was an editor of The Yale Law Journal and had Robert Bork as a teacher.[9][6] He graduated in 1984 with a Juris Doctor degree. After law school, Amar was a law clerk for then-judge Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit from 1984 to 1985.[9] He then interviewed for a clerkship with Justice John Paul Stevens but did not receive an offer.
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Academic career
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Amar joined the faculty of Yale Law School in 1985 as an assistant professor, then became an associate professor in 1988 and a full professor in 1990. From 1993 to 2008, he was the law school's Southmayd Professor of Law. He received the school's appointment as a Sterling Professor of Law in 2008.[9] Amar's former students include four U.S. senators—Cory Booker, Michael Bennet, Chris Coons, and Josh Hawley—and government officials Jake Sullivan and Neal Katyal.[11] Justice Brett Kavanaugh was also a student of Amar.[12]
He is the author of publications and books, including The Words That Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840. Justices across the spectrum on the Supreme Court have cited his work in more than four dozen cases—the most among living non-emeritus scholars. In surveys of judicial citations and/or scholarly citations, he typically ranks among America’s five most-cited mid-career legal scholars.[citation needed]
He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007.[13] In 2008, U.S. presidential candidate Mike Gravel said that he would name Amar to the Supreme Court if elected president.[14]
He was awarded the prestigious Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters in 2024.[15]
Amar, a self-described liberal, has since engaged in advocacy considered controversial among progressive outlets, bloggers, and professors.[16][17][18] He argued in favor of Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court[19] and argued that overturning Roe v. Wade would not affect other privacy rights.[20]
Since early 2021 he has co-hosted a weekly podcast, Amarica’s Constitution with a fellow Yale alumnus, Andy Lipka. Guests have included Bob Woodward,[21] Floyd Abrams,[22] and Gary Hart.[23]
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Personal life
Amar and his wife, Vinita Parkash, married in 1989. He has three children: Vikram, and Kara.[9] He is politically a pro-choice Democrat.[24]
Selected works
Books
- The Constitution and Criminal Procedure: First Principles (1997) ISBN 0-300-06678-3
- For the People (with Alan Hirsch) (1997) ISBN 0-684-87102-5
- The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction (1998) ISBN 0-300-07379-8
- Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking (ed. with Paul Brest, Sanford Levinson, and Jack M. Balkin), (2000) ISBN 0-7355-5062-X
- America's Constitution: A Biography (2005) ISBN 1-4000-6262-4
- America's Unwritten Constitution: The Precedents and Principles We Live By (2012) ISBN 978-0-465-02957-0
- The Bill of Rights Primer: A Citizen's Guidebook to the American Bill of Rights (with Les Adams) (2013) ISBN 978-1-62087-572-8
- The Law of the Land: A Grand Tour of Our Constitutional Republic (2015) ISBN 978-0-465-06590-5
- The Constitution Today: Timeless Lessons for the Issues of Our Era (2016) ISBN 978-0-465-09633-6
- The Words that Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840 (2021) ISBN 978-0-465-09635-0
Articles
- Amar, Akhil Reed (1985). "A Neo-Federalist View of Article III: Separating the Two Tiers of Federal Jurisdiction". Boston University Law Review. 65 (2): 205–272.
- — (1987). "Of Sovereignty and Federalism". Yale Law Journal. 96 (7): 1425–1520. doi:10.2307/796493.
- — (1988). "Philadelphia Revisited: Amending the Constitution Outside Article V". University of Chicago Law Review. 55 (4): 1043–1104. doi:10.2307/1599782.
- — (1989). "Marbury, Section 13, and the Original Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court". University of Chicago Law Review. 56 (2): 443–99. doi:10.2307/1599844.
- — (1991). "The Bill of Rights As a Constitution". Yale Law Journal. 100 (5): 1131–1210. doi:10.2307/796690.
- — (1992). "Child Abuse As Slavery: A Thirteenth Amendment Response to DeShaney". Harvard Law Review. 105 (6): 1359–85.
- — (1992). "The Case of the Missing Amendments: R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul". Harvard Law Review. 106 (1): 124–61.
- — (1992). "The Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment". Yale Law Journal. 101 (6): 1193–1284. doi:10.2307/796923.
- — (1994). "The Consent of the Governed: Constitutional Amendment Outside Article V". Columbia Law Review. 94 (2): 457–508. doi:10.2307/1123201.
- — (1994). "Fourth Amendment First Principles". Harvard Law Review. 107 (4): 757–819. doi:10.2307/1341994.
- —; Lettow, Renée B. (1995). "Fifth Amendment First Principles: The Self-Incrimination Clause". Michigan Law Review. 93 (5): 1193–1284.
- — (1995). "Foreword: Sixth Amendment First Principles". Georgetown Law Journal. 84: 641–712.
- — (1999). "Intratextualism". Harvard Law Review. 112 (4): 747–827. doi:10.2307/1342297.
- — (2000). "The Supreme Court, 1999 Term; Foreword: The Document and the Doctrine" (PDF). Harvard Law Review. 114 (1): 26–134.
- — (2009). "Bush, Gore, Florida, and the Constitution" (PDF). Florida Law Review. 61 (5): 945–68.
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References
External links
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