Akhil Reed Amar

Early life and education

Amar was born on September 6, 1958, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 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. His parents were young physicians from India who met at the University of Michigan. His father became a professor at the University of California, San Francisco. His middle name comes from his father's mentor, Reed M. Nesbit.

Amar grew up in Walnut Creek, California, and graduated from Las Lomas High School in 1976. He then attended Yale University, where he double majored in history and economics. He was a member of the Yale Debate Association, winning its Thacher Memorial Prize, and was chair of the Liberal Party of the Yale Political Union. He befriended future journalist Richard Brookhiser in his first year in college, and graduated as a resident of Ezra Stiles College. Amar graduated from Yale in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, with membership in Phi Beta Kappa. He had developed a serious interest in history studying under professors Edmund Morgan and John Morton Blum.

In 1981, Amar entered Yale Law School, where he was an editor of The Yale Law Journal and had Robert Bork as a teacher. 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.

Academic career

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. 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. Justice Brett Kavanaugh was also briefly a student of Amar.

He is the author of more than a hundred law review articles and many books, including The Words That Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840 and its sequel Born Equal: Remaking America's Constitution, 1840-1920. His nonfiction books have collectively earned two starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and three starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews.

He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007. In 2008, U.S. presidential candidate Mike Gravel said that he would name Amar to the Supreme Court if elected president.

He was awarded the prestigious Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters in 2024.

Amar, a self-described liberal, has since engaged in advocacy considered controversial among progressive outlets, bloggers, and professors. He argued in favor of Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court and argued that overturning Roe v. Wade would not affect other privacy rights.

Since early 2021 he has co-hosted a weekly podcast, Amarica’s Constitution with a fellow Yale alumnus, Andy Lipka. Guests have included Stephen Breyer, Bob Woodward, Kate A. Shaw, Linda Greenhouse, and Gary Hart.

Personal life

Amar and his wife, Vinita Parkash, married in 1989. He is politically a pro-choice Democrat.

Selected works

Books

• The Constitution and Criminal Procedure: First Principles (1997)
• For the People (with Alan Hirsch) (1997)
• The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction (1998)
• Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking (ed. with Paul Brest, Sanford Levinson, and Jack M. Balkin) (2000)
• America's Constitution: A Biography (2005)
• America's Unwritten Constitution: The Precedents and Principles We Live By (2012)
• The Bill of Rights Primer: A Citizen's Guidebook to the American Bill of Rights (with Les Adams) (2013)
• The Law of the Land: A Grand Tour of Our Constitutional Republic (2015)
• The Constitution Today: Timeless Lessons for the Issues of Our Era (2016)
• The Words that Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840 (2021)
• Born Equal: Remaking America's Constitution, 1840-1920 (2025)

Articles

References

References

1. Tam, Derek. (November 7, 2008). "Amar Earns Sterling Rank". [[The Yale Daily News]].
2. "Akhil Reed Amar".
3. "Akhil Reed Amar".
4. (October 3, 2023). "Renowned Yale Law Professor Akhil Reed Amar Explores “The Founding Fathers and the Importance of Civil Discourse” in Captivating Baylor Law Lecture".
5. Shapiro, Fred R.. (2021). "The Most-Cited Legal Scholars Revisited". [[University of Chicago Law Review]].
6. (2016). "Vikram David Amar". [[University of Illinois College of Law]].
7. (May 22, 2022). "A Professor and the American Heritage".
8. (May 20, 2015). "Obama Names Yale Professor to Key Administration Post". India-West.
9. Amar, Akhil. (July 2021). "CV – Akhil Reed Amar".
10. (2010). "Notable Alumni {{!}} Ezra Stiles College". [[Yale University]].
11. (May 25, 2022). "Akhil Amar: Looking at How America Governs Itself".
12. (September 2018). "Filling the Court: From Midnight Judges to Court Packing to Garland, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh". [[Hunter College]].
13. [https://law.yale.edu/akhil-reed-amar Yale Law School]
14. "Books by Akhil Reed Amar and Complete Book Reviews". Publishers Weekly.
15. "Books by Akhil Reed Amar". Kirkus.
16. "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A". American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
17. Kaplan, Thomas. (February 7, 2008). "Gravel's justice of choice: Amar". Yale Daily News.
18. "Awards".
19. Lemieux, Scott. (June 24, 2022). "Getting Real About the Post-'Roe' World". The American Prospect, Inc..
20. Weissmann, Jordan. (July 10, 2018). "The Liberal Case for Kavanaugh Is Complete Crap". The Slate Group.
21. Koppelman, Andrew. (May 22, 2022). "Akhil Amar and the Dobbs draft". Nextstar Media, Inc..
22. (July 10, 2018). "Opinion | A Liberal's Case for Brett Kavanaugh". The New York Times.
23. Amar, Akhil Reed. (May 13, 2022). "The End of Roe v. Wade". Wall Street Journal.
24. "Justice on the Spot - Special Guest Justice Stephen Breyer".
25. "The Purpose of the Truth".
26. "Strictly Scrutinizing Moore - Special Guest Kate Shaw".
27. "Roberts Court, or Trump Court? A Conversation with Linda Greenhouse".
28. "Filibuster Finis".
29. Adler, Jonathan H.. (May 16, 2022). "Akhil Amar on the Draft Dobbs Opinion".