Akhil Reed Amar

{{short description|American legal scholar (born 1958)}} {{Use American English|date=December 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox person | image = AkhilReedAmarSterling2014 (cropped).jpg | image_size = | caption = Amar in 2014 | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1958|9|6}} | birth_place = Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | awards = Thacher Memorial Prize (1980) Louis Laun Prize (1980) Israel Peres Prize (1984) Paul M. Bator Award (1993) ABA Certificate of Merit (1998-99) ABA Silver Gavel Award (2005) American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007) William Clyde DeVane Medal (2008) American Bar Foundation Outstanding Scholar Award (2017) Howard R. Lamar Award (2017) Barry Prize (2024) Abraham Lincoln Institute Book Award (2025) | module = {{Infobox academic | embed = yes | discipline = Constitutional law | workplaces = Yale University | notable_students = {{collapsible list|title={{nobold|}}|Brett Kavanaugh|John Yoo|Neal Katyal|Chris Coons|Michael Bennet|Jake Sullivan|Cory Booker|Sarah Cleveland|Cyrus Habib|Josh Hawley|Stephanos Bibas|Stephen A. Higginson|Jill A. Pryor|William J. Nardini|Neera Tanden|Hampton Dellinger|Jeffrey Rosen|Brian Deese|Steven Engel|Rob Bonta|Alex Azar|Candace Jackson-Akiwumi|Michael Barr|Kermit Roosevelt III|Josh Chafetz|Steve Vladeck|William Baude|John Fabian Witt|James Forman Jr.|Stephen E. Sachs|Daniel Markovits|Gabriel P. Sanchez|Maggie Goodlander}} }} | signature =  | footnotes = | relatives = Vikram Amar (brother) | title = Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science | name = Akhil Amar | education = Yale University (BA, JD) }} '''Akhil Reed Amar''' (born September 6, 1958) is an American constitutional scholar who is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University.<ref name=":0">{{cite news |last=Tam |first=Derek |date=November 7, 2008 |title=Amar Earns Sterling Rank |url=http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2008/11/07/amar-earns-sterling-rank/ |newspaper=Yale Daily News}}</ref> He has written on a wide range of constitutional topics, including voting rights, jury reform, the Guarantee clause, the Electoral College, jurisdiction stripping, the Bill of Rights, the Fourteenth Amendment, judicial power, American federalism, American slavery, originalism, and criminal procedure.

Amar received his law degree from Yale Law School. After clerking for Judge (later Justice) Stephen Breyer, he joined the Yale Law School faculty in 1985 at the age of 26.<ref name= ":16">{{cite news |title= Amar, Hill, and Holloway honored for service to alumni |url= https://news.yale.edu/2017/05/01/amar-hill-and-holloway-honored-service-alumni |access-date=May 2, 2026}}</ref> He is Yale's only living professor to have received the university's unofficial triple crown: the title of Sterling Professor for scholarship, the DeVane Medal for teaching, and the Lamar Award for alumni service.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Akhil Reed Amar|url=https://academysciencesletters.org/member/akhil-reed-amar/|website=American Academy of Sciences and Letters |access-date=2025-12-09}}</ref>

His work has been cited in more than fifty U.S. Supreme Court cases by justices nominated by presidents of both parties—the most of any scholar under age 70.<ref name=":4" /> Measured by a different metric—lifetime citations in law reviews—Amar is also the most-cited American constitutional scholar still under age 70, according to Fred R. Shapiro's 2021 citation study.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Shapiro |first=Fred R. |title=The Most-Cited Legal Scholars Revisited |journal=University of Chicago Law Review |date=2021}}</ref>

==Early life and education== Amar was born on September 6, 1958, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.<ref name=":2" /> He has two brothers, one of whom is Vikram Amar, who is also a legal scholar and is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis School of Law.<ref>{{cite web |title=Vikram D. Amar |url=https://law.ucdavis.edu/people/vikram-amar |website=U. C. Davis School of Law |date=September 2, 2021 |publisher=The Regents of the University of California}}</ref> His parents were young physicians from India who met at the University of Michigan.<ref name=":2" /> His father became a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.<ref name=":2">{{cite magazine |last1=Nordlinger |first1=Jay |author1-link=Jay Nordlinger|date=May 22, 2022 |title=A Professor and the American Heritage |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/a-professor-and-the-american-heritage/ |magazine=National Review}}</ref> His middle name comes from his father's mentor, Reed M. Nesbit.<ref name=":2"/>

Amar grew up in Walnut Creek, California, and graduated from Las Lomas High School in 1976.<ref>{{cite news |title=Obama Names Yale Professor to Key Administration Post |newspaper=India-West |date=May 20, 2015 |url=http://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/obama-names-yale-professor-to-key-administration-post/article_0badcab4-ff50-11e4-8d37-a7ce56189b08.html |access-date=June 29, 2017 |archive-date=August 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190804164500/https://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/obama-names-yale-professor-to-key-administration-post/article_0badcab4-ff50-11e4-8d37-a7ce56189b08.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> He then attended Yale University, where he double majored in history and economics.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Amar |first=Akhil |date=July 2021 |title=CV – Akhil Reed Amar |url=https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/amar_akhil_cv.pdf |access-date=April 18, 2024 |website=Yale Law School}}</ref>

His undergraduate mentors included American historians Edmund Morgan and John Morton Blum.<ref name=":2" /> He graduated from Yale in 1980 with a perfect 4.0 grade point average, receiving a Bachelor of Arts, ''summa cum laude'', winning election to Phi Beta Kappa and also winning Yale's Louis Laun graduation prize for overall excellence by an economics major.<ref name=":1" />

In 1981, Amar entered Yale Law School, where he became an editor of The Yale Law Journal<ref>{{cite web |url=https://yalelawjournal.org/masthead/volume-93 |title=YLJ Volume 93 Masthead |access-date=April 26, 2026}}</ref> and had Robert Bork as a teacher.<ref name=":2" /> His most notable mentors were Guido Calabresi and Owen Fiss, alongside Bruce Ackerman, Paul Gewirtz, and Burke Marshall.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Amar Albany Law School |url=https://www.albanylawreview.org/article/69428.pdf |access-date=April 18, 2026}}</ref> He graduated in 1984 with a Juris Doctor degree and received the Peres Prize for the best student essay in the Yale Law Journal. 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.<ref name=":1" />

==Academic career== [[File:64-CFDA-20120912-02-024 The Constitution Turns 225. Justice Clarence Thomas, Akhil Reed Amar, September 12, 2012.jpg|thumb|Amar speaks with Justice Clarence Thomas (left) at the National Archives in 2012]]

Amar joined the faculty of Yale Law School in 1985 as an assistant professor—at age 26, the youngest junior professor at the law school since Guido Calabresi in 1959<ref>{{cite web |title=Guido's Tales |url=https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/news/guidos-tales |publisher=Yale Law School |access-date=8 May 2026}}</ref>—and was promoted to full professor in 1990.<ref name=":1" /> In 1993, he became Southmayd Professor of Law—at age 34, the youngest chaired professor at the law school since William O. Douglas in the early 1930s.<ref name=":1" /> In 2008, he was appointed Sterling Professor of Law, the law school's highest academic rank.<ref name=":0" /> Over the years, he has served as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, Columbia Law School, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Pepperdine Law School.<ref name=":1" />

Amar's former students include U.S. senators Cory Booker, Michael Bennet, Chris Coons, and Josh Hawley, as well as government officials and judges including Jake Sullivan, Maggie Goodlander, Neal Katyal, Alex Azar, Michael Barr, Brian Deese, Stephanos Bibas, Stephen A. Higginson, Jill A. Pryor, William J. Nardini, Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, Gabriel P. Sanchez, Goodwin Liu, Bessie Dewar, and Rob Bonta.<ref>{{cite web |date=May 25, 2022 |title=Akhil Amar: Looking at How America Governs Itself |url=https://www.zip06.com/local-news/20220525/akhil-amar-looking-at-how-america-governs-itself/ |website=Zip06 |access-date=April 18, 2024}}</ref> Justice Brett Kavanaugh briefly attended one of Amar's constitutional law courses while a student at Yale Law School.<ref>{{cite web |date=September 2018 |title=Filling the Court: From Midnight Judges to Court Packing to Garland, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh |url=https://www.roosevelthouse.hunter.cuny.edu/events/akhil-reed-amar-filling-court-midnight-judges-court-packing-garland-gorsuch-kavanaugh/ |website=Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute |publisher=Hunter College |access-date=2024-04-18}}</ref>

He is the sole author of more than one hundred law review articles<ref name=":4">{{cite web |title=Akhil Reed Amar |url=https://law.yale.edu/akhil-reed-amar |website=Yale Law School |access-date=May 2, 2026}}</ref> and eight books, including ''The Words That Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760–1840'' and its sequel ''Born Equal: Remaking America's Constitution, 1840–1920''. Amar has stated that these two books are part of a planned trilogy, with a third volume tentatively titled ''Earth's Best Hope: America's Constitution, 1920–Present''.<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed. ''Born Equal'', pp. 612, 624.</ref> Amar has described himself as a pro-choice liberal and a constitutional originalist.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thefp.com/p/the-yale-law-professor-who-is-anti-52a |title=The Yale Law Professor Who Is Anti-Anti-Roe |website=The Free Press |access-date=May 2, 2026}}</ref> Some of his positions have drawn criticism from progressive commentators and legal scholars.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://prospect.org/justice/getting-real-about-the-post-roe-world/ |title=Getting Real About the Post-'Roe' World |last=Lemieux |first=Scott |date=June 24, 2022 |website=The American Prospect |access-date=March 19, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2018/09/09/646018064/a-liberal-law-professor-on-his-endorsement-of-kavanaugh |title=A Liberal Law Professor on His Endorsement of Kavanaugh |website=NPR |date=September 9, 2018 |access-date=May 2, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/3496136-akhil-amar-and-the-dobbs-draft/ |title=Akhil Amar and the Dobbs draft |last=Koppelman |first=Andrew |date=May 22, 2022 |website=The Hill |access-date=March 19, 2023}}</ref> He supported Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/09/opinion/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-trump.html |title=A Liberal's Case for Brett Kavanaugh |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 10, 2018 |last=Amar |first=Akhil Reed}}</ref> and argued that overturning ''Roe v. Wade'' would not undermine other privacy-related rights, including the right to use contraceptives and the right to interracial marriage, recognized in ''Griswold v. Connecticut'' and ''Loving v. Virginia'', respectively.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-end-of-roe-v-wade-11652453609 |title=The End of Roe v. Wade |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |date=May 13, 2022 |last=Amar |first=Akhil Reed}}</ref>

===Honors and awards=== Amar's books have received several awards and recognitions. In 1998–99, he received an ABA Certificate of Merit for ''The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction''.<ref>https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300127089/the-bill-of-rights/</ref> His 2005 book, ''America’s Constitution: A Biography'', received the ABA's annual Silver Gavel Award.<ref>{{cite web |title=American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award |url=https://www.librarything.com/award/3261.0.x/American-Bar-Association-Silver-Gavel-Award |website=LibraryThing |access-date=19 May 2026}}</ref> His 2012 book, ''America’s Unwritten Constitution'', was named one of the 50 notable nonfiction books of the year by ''The Washington Post''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/best-of-2012-50-notable-works-of-nonfiction/2012/11/15/4f55d43a-116b-11e2-be82-c3411b7680a9_story.html |title=Best of 2012: 50 notable works of nonfiction |website=The Washington Post |access-date=April 19, 2026}}</ref> His 2015 book, ''The Constitution Today'', was included on ''Time'' magazine's list of top ten nonfiction books of the year.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://time.com/collections/top-10-list-2016/4571641/let-the-people-rule-geoffrey-cowan/ |title=Top 10 Everything of 2016 |website=Time |access-date=April 19, 2026}}</ref> His 2025 book ''Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840–1920'' received the Abraham Lincoln Institute's annual book award.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lincoln-institute.org/ali-symposium-2026/ |title=Lincoln Institute 2026 Symposium |access-date=April 19, 2026}}</ref> His books have also received a total of five starred reviews from ''Publishers Weekly''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/authorpage/akhil-reed-amar.html |title=Books by Akhil Reed Amar and Complete Book Reviews |website=Publishers Weekly |access-date=August 24, 2025}}</ref> and ''Kirkus Reviews''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/author/akhil-reed-amar/ |title=Books by Akhil Reed Amar |website=Kirkus Reviews |access-date=August 24, 2025}}</ref>

In 1993, Amar received the annual Paul M. Bator Award from the Federalist Society.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://fedsoc.org/paul-m-bator-award-recipients |title=Paul M. Bator Award Recipients |website=Federalist Society |access-date=April 19, 2026}}</ref> In 2007, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.<ref>{{cite web |title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A |url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=April 17, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510021801/http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf |archive-date=May 10, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2008, U.S. presidential candidate Mike Gravel stated that, if elected president, he would nominate Amar to the Supreme Court.<ref>{{cite news |first=Thomas |last=Kaplan |title=Gravel's justice of choice: Amar |url=http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/23376 |work=Yale Daily News |date=February 7, 2008 |access-date=June 29, 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081024234436/http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/23376 |archive-date=October 24, 2008}}</ref>

In 2015, President Barack Obama nominated Amar to the National Council on the Humanities.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/05/20/president-obama-announces-more-key-administration-posts |title=President Obama announces more key administration posts |access-date=April 19, 2026}}</ref> The Senate did not hold a confirmation vote. That same year, Amar received the William Clyde DeVane Medal for Undergraduate Teaching Excellence, Yale's highest teaching award.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://archives.news.yale.edu/v36.n21/story3.html |title=Amar and Crothers cited for teaching and scholarship |website=Yale Bulletin and Calendar |access-date=April 19, 2026}}</ref>

In 2017, he received the Outstanding Scholar Award from the American Bar Foundation<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.americanbarfoundation.org/abf-fellows/awards/outstanding-scholar-award/ |title=ABF Outstanding Scholar Award |access-date=April 19, 2026}}</ref> and the Association of Yale Alumni's Howard R. Lamar Award for Outstanding Faculty Service to Yale Alumni.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.yale.edu/2017/05/01/amar-hill-and-holloway-honored-service-alumni |title=Amar, Hill, and Holloway honored for service to alumni |access-date=April 19, 2026}}</ref> In 2024, Amar received the Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement from the American Academy of Sciences and Letters.<ref>{{cite web |title=Awards |url=https://academysciencesletters.org/awards/ |access-date=2024-10-27 |website=American Academy of Sciences & Letters}}</ref>

===Professional activities and public engagement===

Amar has testified on many occasions before the United States Congress, sometimes at the invitation of Republicans and sometimes at the invitation of Democrats.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Amar%20Testimony.pdf |title= Testimony Before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court, Akhil Reed Amar |website=Senate Judiciary Committee |access-date=May 3, 2026}}</ref> He has also delivered endowed lectures at over 75 universities, colleges, and schools in the United States and abroad.<ref>{{cite web |title=Preeminent Constitutional Scholar Akhil Reed Amar to Join the Museum as Buchholz Lecturer to Discuss “The Words that Made Us," Sept. 21 |url=https://www.amrevmuseum.org/press-releases/preeminent-constitutional-scholar-akhil-reed-amar-to-join-the-museum-as-buchholz-lecturer-to-discuss-the-words-that-made-us-sept-21 |publisher=Museum of the American Revolution |access-date=8 May 2026}}</ref> From 1999 to 2004, he was a contributing editor to ''The New Republic''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://newrepublic.com/authors/akhil-reed-amar |title=Akhil Amar Author Page |website=The New Republic |access-date=April 19, 2026}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> In the early 2000s, he participated in efforts to establish the National Constitution Center.<ref name=":1" /> He has served as a trustee of the American Exchange Project and the New York Historical.<ref name=":1" />

===Media, podcasting, and commentary===

Amar has participated in a range of media and public educational projects. In the early 2000s, he served as an informal consultant to the television series ''The West Wing''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2003/09/14/after-the-veep-redraw-the-line/564d7190-7102-4191-aa6e-7c2262fd5314/ |title=After the Veep, Redraw the Line |website=The Washington Post |access-date=April 19, 2026}}</ref> He was referenced by name in a 2004 episode as a Yale Law School classmate of the fictional character Josh Lyman. Several later episodes addressed themes related to Amar's published work on presidential succession and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment.<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed & Amar, Vikram David, [https://openyls.law.yale.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/322604e9-d991-425d-bd2d-1ba76129a027/content "Is the Presidential Succession Law Constitutional?"], 48 ''Stanford Law Review'' 113 (1995–1996).</ref><ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, [https://openyls.law.yale.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/6f3a6a18-cbd3-48cd-a35a-2c8d303c94d4/content "Applications and Implications of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment"] (2009).</ref>

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,<ref>{{cite web |title=Justice on the Spot - Special Guest Justice Stephen Breyer |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/justice-on-the-spot-special-guest-justice-stephen-breyer/id1549624070?i=1000682296204 |website=Apple Podcasts |access-date=August 22, 2025}}</ref> Bob Woodward,<ref>{{cite web |title=The Purpose of the Truth |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-purpose-of-the-truth-special-guest-bob-woodward/id1549624070?i=1000516071473 |website=Apple Podcasts |access-date=August 3, 2023}}</ref> Kate A. Shaw,<ref>{{cite web |title=Strictly Scrutinizing Moore - Special Guest Kate Shaw |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strictly-scrutinizing-moore-special-guest-kate-shaw/id1549624070?i=1000591457467 |website=Apple Podcasts |access-date=August 22, 2025}}</ref> Linda Greenhouse,<ref>{{cite web |title=Roberts Court, or Trump Court? A Conversation with Linda Greenhouse |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/roberts-court-or-trump-court-a-conversation-with/id1549624070?i=1000545733187 |website=Apple Podcasts |access-date=August 22, 2025}}</ref> Steven Calabresi,<ref>{{cite web |title= Sinking the Unitary Executive - Special Guest Steven G. Calabresi |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sinking-the-unitary-executive-special-guest-steven-g/id1549624070?i=1000697968698 |website=Apple Podcasts |access-date=April 19, 2026}}</ref> Sarah Isgur,<ref>{{cite web |title= Last Branch Stands, The Barbara Court sits - Special Guest Sarah Isgur |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/last-branch-stands-the-barbara-court-sits-special/id1549624070?i=1000761456977|website=Apple Podcasts |access-date=April 19, 2026}}</ref> and Gary Hart.<ref>{{cite web |title=Filibuster Finis |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/heart-to-hart-filibuster-finis-special-guest-gary-hart/id1549624070?i=1000548305235 |website=Apple Podcasts |access-date=August 3, 2023}}</ref>

In 2025, he and his brother Vik Amar began co-authoring a regular column on SCOTUSblog punningly titled “Brothers in Law."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.scotusblog.com/category/brothers-in-law/ |publisher=SCOTUSblog |access-date=April 19, 2026 |title=Brothers in Law}}</ref>

==Selected Contributions to Legal Scholarship== Amar's scholarship spans constitutional interpretation, federal courts, criminal procedure, and democratic design, and has been widely cited by courts and legal scholars.

===Early scholarship (pre-tenure, through 1990)=== Amar's early scholarship focused on democratic theory, federal courts, and constitutional structure.

In a 1984 student note, Amar developed and elaborated a method of selecting representatives that he termed "lottery voting"— a system in which voters cast ballots and a representative is then selected at random from the ballots cast.<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed. “Choosing Representatives by Lottery Voting.” The Yale Law Journal 93, no. 7 (1984): 1283–308. https://doi.org/10.2307/796258.</ref> He argued that this blend of voting (typically used to select legislators) and lotteries (often used in selecting jurors) could potentially broaden representation. This note received the faculty-awarded Peres Prize for the best student note published in the Yale Law Journal that academic year.<ref name=":1" /> Although student-authored work is rarely cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, this student note was cited in Justice John Paul Stevens's dissent in ''Holland v. Illinois'' (1990).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/493/474/ |title=Holland v. Illinois |access-date=April 25, 2026}}</ref>

In a 1985 law review article,<ref name=":6">Amar, Akhil Reed, “A Neo-Federalist View of Article III: Separating the Two Tiers of Federal Jurisdiction,” 65 B.U. L. Rev. 205 (1985)</ref> later elaborated in articles in 1989<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, “Marbury, Section 13, and the Original Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court,” 56 U. Chi. L. Rev. 443 (1985)</ref> and 1990,<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, “The Two-Tiered Structure of the Judiciary Act of 1789,” 138 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1499 (1990)</ref> and in books published in 2005<ref name=":7">Amar, Akhil Reed, ''America's Constitution: A Biography'' (Random House 2005)</ref> and 2021,<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, ''The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840'' (Basic Books 2021).</ref> Amar argued that Article III jurisdiction consists of two distinct tiers of lawsuits.<ref name=":6" /> In the first tier, he argued, federal jurisdiction is mandatory: in "all cases" arising under federal law and in "all cases" affecting public ambassadors, public ministers, and consuls, at least one Article III court must be available to hear the case at trial or on final appeal.<ref name=":6" /> In the second tier of “controversies” defined by party alignment (such as diversity suits between citizens of different states), Congress may give the first and last word to state courts.<ref name=":6" /> The 1985 article, written while Amar was a law student and published while he was a law clerk, has been cited in more than 500 other law review articles.<ref name=":8">{{cite web |title=Hein Online Amar Author Profile |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/AuthorProfile?action=edit&search_name=Amar,%20Akhil%20Reed&collection=journals |website=HeinOnline |publisher=HeinOnline |access-date=30 April 2026}}</ref> His sequel articles have also been cited in hundreds of law review articles.<ref name=":8" />

Around this time, Amar also began exploring broader questions of constitutional structure and governmental accountability. In the Constitution's bicentennial year, 1987, Amar published an article in the Yale Law Journal addressing issues of American popular sovereignty and federalism.<ref name=":9">Amar, Akhil Reed, “Of Sovereignty and Federalism,” 96 Yale L.J. 1425 (1987)</ref> He proposed that states adopt what he termed "converse-1983" laws to provide remedies for individuals whose federal constitutional rights had been violated by federal officials.<ref name=":9" /> He also argued against certain governmental and government-officer immunity doctrines that, in his view, unduly limited remedies for victims of constitutional violations.<ref name=":9" /> The article has been cited in more than 1,000 law review articles,<ref name=":8" /> ranking it among the top twenty-five most cited law review pieces published in the last forty years.<ref name=":10">{{cite web |title=SCHOLARLY IMPACT RANKINGS: Comprehensive Rankings Most-Cited Articles |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/scholarly-impact-ranking-in/comprehensive-articles |website=HeinOnline |publisher=HeinOnline |access-date=24 May 2026}}</ref> It has also been cited in seven Supreme Court cases.<ref>''See, e.g.'', ''Pennsylvania v. Union Gas Co.'', 491 U.S. 1 (1989) (Stevens, J., concurring); ''California v. Acevedo'', 500 U.S. 565 (1991) (Scalia, J. concurring); ''New York v. United States'', 505 U.S. 144 (1992); ''Hess v. Port Auth.'',513 U.S. 30 (1944) (Stevens, J., concurring); ''U.S. Term Limits Inc v. Thornton'', 514 U.S. 779 (1995) (Thomas, J., dissenting); ''Seminole Tribe v. Florida'', 517 U.S. 44 (1996) (Souter, J. dissenting); ''Boumediene v Bush'', 553 U.S. 723 (2008)</ref> In 2025 and 2026, several states have enacted or are considering enacting converse-1983 laws.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Liptak |first1=Adam |title=A Legal Tool for Holding ICE Agents to Account, Hiding in Plain Sight |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/us/ice-lawsuits-states.html |website=The New York Times }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Dindial |first1=Emily Reina |title=States Have the Power to Hold Federal Agents Accountable by Allowing People to Sue Them for Rights Violations |url=https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/states-have-the-power-to-hold-federal-agents-accountable-by-allowing-people-to-sue-them-for-rights-violations |website=American Civil Liberties Union |access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Stark |first1=Harrison |title=Resuscitating State Damages Remedies Against Federal Officials |url=https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/resuscitating-state-damages-remedies-against-federal-officials |access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref>

===Early Tenure period (1990–1993)=== During his early tenure period, Amar began to widen his constitutional focus.

In 1991, Amar published an article in the University of Chicago Law Review arguing that geographically defensible borders were central to the American constitutional project.<ref name=":11">Amar, Akhil Reed, “Some New World Lessons for the Old World,” 58 U. Chi. L. Rev. 483. (1991)</ref> He contended that early American liberty developed (for white Americans at least) in part because the nation, protected by its wide oceanic moats and other features of its geography, avoided maintaining a large peacetime standing army until the middle of the twentieth century.<ref name=":11" />

In related work that year, Amar published an article in the Yale Law Journal addressing the Bill of Rights.<ref name=":12">Amar, Akhil Reed, “The Bill of Rights as a Constitution,” 100 Yale L.J. 1131 (1991)</ref> He argued that the original Bill of Rights blended states’ rights and community rights (such as jury-related rights and militia-related rights) with individual rights, raising questions about how the Bill of Rights could be incorporated against states through the later Fourteenth Amendment.<ref name=":12" /> In a 1992 article in the Yale Law Journal and a 1998 book on the Bill of Rights, Amar defended incorporation—applying the provisions of the Bill of Rights against states—but argued that it should be implemented in a “refined” form that distinguished individual rights from structural and collective rights.<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, “The Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment,” 101 Yale L. J. 1193 (1992)</ref><ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, ''The Bill of Rights: Creation and Constitution'' (Yale Univ. Press 1998)</ref> His arguments for what he dubbed “refined incorporation” have been widely discussed by scholars and judges.<ref name=":8" />

Amar also addressed the relationship between constitutional structure and individual rights in specific doctrinal contexts. For example, he argued that the Second Amendment originally reflected a more communitarian and localist conception of gun rights, whereas the Fourteenth Amendment supported a more individual-rights-oriented understanding.<ref name=":12" /> Some scholars have described Amar as among the first modern constitutional scholars to give sustained attention to the possibility of an individual constitutional right to private gun possession. Amar himself is not a gun owner,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Tran |first1=Ethan |title=Akhil Reed Amar lectures students on how to understand American history |url=https://thedavidsonian.news/1353/politics/akhil-reed-amar-lectures-students-on-how-to-understand-american-history/ |website=The Davidson |access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Cantor |first1=Charlotte |title=Amar Returns to Hackley |url=https://hsdial.org/2025/11/19/akhil-amar-returns-to-hackley/ |website=The Dial |access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref> and he has also written that a range of reasonable gun regulations would pass constitutional muster.<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, ''The Constitution Today: Timeless Lessons for the Issues of our Era'' (Basic Books 2016)</ref> His 1991 article has been cited in more than 900 law review articles, ranking it among the forty most cited articles published in the last forty years.<ref name=":8" /> It has also been cited in five Supreme Court cases.<ref>''See, e.g.'', ''California v. Acevedo'', 500 U.S. 565 (1991) (Scalia, J. concurring); ''Lee v. Weisman'', 505 U.S. 577 (1992) (Souter, J. concurring); ''Clinton v. City of New York'', 524 U.S. 417,(1998) (Kennedy, J., concurring); ''Zelman v. Simmons-Harris'', 536 U.S. 639(2002) (Thomas, J., concurring); ''McDonald v. City of Chicago'', 561 U.S. 742 (2010) (Breyer, J., dissenting)</ref> The 1998 book elaborating the idea of “refined incorporation” has been cited in eight Supreme Court cases.<ref>''See e.g.'', ''Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow'', 542 U.S. 1 (2004) (Thomas, J., concurring); ''Miller-El v. Dretke'', 545 U.S. 231 (2005) (Breyer, J., concurring); ''Van Orden v. Perry'', 545 U.S. 677 (2005) (Stevens, J., dissenting); ''McDonald v. City of Chicago'', 561 U.S. 742 (2010); ''Town of Greece v Galloway'', 572 U.S. 565 (2014) (Thomas, J., concurring); ''Timbs v. Indiana'', 586 U.S. 146 (2019) (Gorsuch, J., concurring); ''New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen'', 597 U.S. 1 (2022); ''Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization'', 597 U.S. 215 (2023)</ref>

===Southmayd Professorship (1993–2008)=== As the Southmayd Professor of Law, Amar further widened his focus, tackling myriad issues of constitutional criminal procedure, and writing about the Constitution as a whole.

In 1994, Amar published an article in the Harvard Law Review reconceptualizing the Fourth Amendment.<ref name=":13">Amar, Akhil Reed, “Fourth Amendment First Principles,” 107 Harv. L. Rev. 757 (1994)</ref> He argued that the Amendment contains neither a global warrant requirement nor a global probable-cause requirement. According to Amar, the Amendment was designed to prohibit general warrants but not to prevent all or even most warrantless intrusions. He further argued that the Amendment presupposed damage remedies for unlawful searches, rather than the exclusion of reliable evidence. He argued that the exclusionary rule wrongly rewards the guilty and has no proper constitutional foundation. In Amar's view, courts should adopt a broad understanding of searches and seizures, and should focus on reasonableness as the central Fourth Amendment standard. This article has been cited in more than 1,000 law review articles<ref name=":8" />—ranking it among the top thirty in the last forty years<ref name=":10" />—and by Supreme Court justices in six cases.<ref>''West Covina v. Perkins'', 525 U.S. 234 (1999) (Thomas, J., concurring); ''Atwater v. Lago Vista'', 532 U.S. 318 (2001); ''Virginia v. Moore'',553 U.S. 164 (2008); ''Riley v. California'', 573 U.S. 373 (2014) (Alito, J., concurring); ''Collins v. Virginia'', 584 U.S.586 (2018) (Thomas, J., concurring); ''Carpenter v. United States'', 585 U.S. 296 (2018) (Thomas, J., dissenting)</ref>

He elaborated these ideas in subsequent work addressing other provisions of the criminal procedure amendments. In 1995, Amar published an article on the self-incrimination doctrine of the Fifth Amendment,<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed and Lettow, Renee “Self-Incrimination and the Constitution: A Brief Rejoinder to Professor Kamisar,” 93 Mich. L. Rev. 1011 (1995)</ref> and in 1996, he completed the trilogy with an article on Sixth Amendment first principles.<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, “Foreword: Sixth Amendment First Principles,” 84 Geo. L.J. 641 (1996)</ref> In these years, he also returned to the topic of juries in an article outlining ten suggestions for jury reform.<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, “Reinventing Juries: Ten Suggested Reforms,” 28 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1169. (1994-1995)</ref> These works emphasized truth-seeking and protection of the innocent as central constitutional concerns and criticized rules excluding reliable evidence from criminal trials. The four articles formed the core of Amar's 1997 book on constitutional criminal procedure.<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, ''The Constitution and Criminal Procedures: First Principles'' (Yale Univ. Press 1997)</ref> These articles and the resulting book have been cited in hundreds of law review articles<ref name=":8" /> and in nine Supreme Court cases.<ref>The article on Sixth Amendment Principles was cited in six cases.''See e.g.'', ''Boumediene v. Bush'', 553 U.S. 723 (2008) (Scalia, J., dissenting); ''Bullcoming v. New Mexico'', 564 U.S. 647 (2011) (Kennedy, J., dissenting); ''Luis v. United States'', 578 US 5 (2016); ''Gamble v. United States'', 587 U.S. 678 (2019); ''Cid C. Franklin v. New York'', 604 U.S. __ (2025) (statement of Alito, J.).</ref><ref>The Fifth Amendment article was cited in ''McKune v Lile'', 536 U.S. 24 (2002) (Stevens, J., dissenting)</ref><ref>The book has been cited in three cases. ''See e.g.'', ''Lilly v. Virginia'', 527 U.S. 116 (1999), 594 U.S. 295 (1999) (Breyer, J., concurring); ''Crawford v. Washington'', 541 U.S. 36 (2004); ''Lange v. California'', 594 U.S. 295 (2021) (Thomas, J., dissenting)</ref> Amar's writings on the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment helped spark a shift in Supreme Court doctrine sometimes called “the Crawford revolution.”<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, “Confrontation Clause First Principles: A Reply to Professor Friedman,” 86 Geo. L.J. 1045 (1998). ''See also Crawford v. Washington'', 541 U.S. 36 (2004).</ref>

Amar also contributed to debates over constitutional interpretation and methodology. In 1999, he introduced the term “intratextualism” in a Harvard Law Review article, describing an interpretive approach that examines how certain distinctive words and phrases appear repeatedly in the Constitution.<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, “Intratextualism,” 112 Harv. L. Rev. 747 (1999)</ref> The article has been cited by more than 600 law review articles,<ref name=":8" /> and in two Supreme Court decisions.<ref>''Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission'', 576 U.S. 787 (2015) (Roberts, CJ., dissenting); ''United States v. Vaello Madero'', 596 U.S. 159(2022)(Thomas, J., concurring)</ref>

In subsequent work, Amar continued to develop these interpretive themes. In November 2000, he wrote the foreword to the Harvard Law Review, arguing that constitutional interpretation should place greater emphasis on the Constitution's text, history, and structure, and less on judicial doctrine.<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, “The Supreme Court, 1999 Term–Foreword: The Document and the Doctrine,”114 Harv. L. Rev. 26 (2000)</ref> This article has been cited by more than 400 law review articles,<ref name=":8" /> and is often mentioned as anchoring a modern school of constitutional interpretation known as “liberal originalism.”<ref>{{cite web |last1=Shesol |first1=Jeff |title=What Abraham Lincoln Understood About the Founders |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/books/review/born-equal-akhil-reed-amar.html#:~:text=Amar%2C%20who%20teaches%20law%20at,%2C%20if%20anything%2C%20strenuously%20chatty. |website=The New York Times |access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref> Amar has argued this approach draws on the writings of figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Hugo Black.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Prevost |first1=Lisa |title=Understanding the 'constitutional dialogue' behind American equality |url=https://news.yale.edu/2025/09/18/understanding-constitutional-dialogue-behind-american-equality |website=YaleNews |access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref>

In 2000, Amar also wrote about electoral design. In a New York Times op-ed, he became the first general constitutional scholar in the modern era to argue that the Electoral College was initially shaped and soon revised to placate slaveholders, who disfavored direct-national-election proposals.<ref name=":14">{{cite web |last1=Amar |first1=Akhil Reed |title=The Electoral College, Unfair From Day One |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/09/opinion/the-electoral-college-unfair-from-day-one.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref> According to Amar, slaveholders understood that slaves would not have counted in a direct-election system, but the Founders’ electoral-college system cleverly enabled slave states to get credit for their slave populations via the Constitution's Three Fifths Clause.<ref name=":14" />

In 2001, on the first anniversary of Bush v. Gore, Amar co-authored with his brother, legal scholar Vik Amar, a series of online posts proposing an early version of what later became the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), a set of state laws aiming to award the presidency to the national popular vote winner without a constitutional amendment.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://supreme.findlaw.com/legal-commentary/how-to-achieve-direct-national-election-of-the-president-without-amending-the-constitution.html |title=How to Achieve Direct National Election of the President Without Amending the Constitution: Part Three Of A Three-part Series On The 2000 Election And The Electoral College |work=Findlaw |first1=Akhil Reed |last1=Amar |author-link1=Akhil Amar |first2=Vikram David |last2=Amar |author-link2=Vikram Amar |date=December 28, 2001 |access-date=November 25, 2020 |archive-date=December 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201203204145/https://supreme.findlaw.com/legal-commentary/how-to-achieve-direct-national-election-of-the-president-without-amending-the-constitution.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The Amar Plan, as it came to be known in some circles, differed in certain key ways from a similar blueprint published several months earlier by Northwestern University Professor Robert W. Bennett. Bennett and the Amar brothers “are generally credited as the intellectual godparents” of NPVIC.<ref>{{cite report|last1=Neale|first1=Thomas H.|last2=Nolan|first2=Andrew|title=The National Popular Vote (NPV) Initiative: Direct Election of the President by Interstate Compact|publisher=Congressional Research Service|date=October 28, 2019|url=https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R43823/9|access-date=November 10, 2019}}</ref> The current NPVIC proposal aims to take full effect once adopted by states totalling 270 electoral votes. As of April 2026, states totaling 222 electoral votes have adopted the compact.<ref>{{cite web |title=Progress of the National Popular Vote Bill in Each State |url=https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/state-status |website=National Popular Vote |access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref> Over the years, Amar has identified some legal and practical problems associated with the current NPVIC proposal.<ref>[https://fordhamlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Amar_October-.pdf Remarks by Akhil Reed Amar], ''Symposium: Celebrating the Impact of Senator Birch Bayh: A Lasting Legacy on the Constitution and Beyond'', hosted by Fordham Law School’s Feerick Center for Social Justice on October 16, 2019, at Fordham University School of Law</ref>

During this period, Amar also advanced proposals concerning the structure of the federal judiciary. In August 2002, Amar and co-author Steven G. Calabresi were the first to argue that Congress could establish eighteen-year term limits for Supreme Court justices by statute.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Amar |first1=Akhil Reed |last2=Calabresi |first2=Steven G. |title=Term Limits for the High Court |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2002/08/09/term-limits-for-the-high-court/646134cd-8e13-4166-9474-5f53be633d7c/ |website=The Washington Post |access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref> Amar later testified in support of this proposal before the Biden administration's Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States in 2021.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Akhil Reed |first1=Amar |title=Amar Written Testimony to the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States |url=https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/CAP-Testimony.pdf |website=Biden White House |publisher=Biden White House Archives}}</ref> In 2023, the proposal was endorsed by a project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.<ref>{{cite web |title=Supreme Court Term Limits: An Initiative of the Our Common Purpose project |url=https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/supreme-court-term-limits |website=American Academy of the Arts and Sciences |access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref>

He also addressed questions of campaign finance and political speech. In October 2002, Amar criticized central parts of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, arguing that it unconstitutionally restricted political speech and improperly shielded incumbent lawmakers from criticism.<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, "The Sham Called Campaign Finance Reform,” ''American Lawyer'' (Oct. 2002)</ref> In 2010, the Supreme Court adopted similar reasoning to strike down a major piece of this law.<ref>''Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission'', 558 U.S. 310 (2010)</ref> Amar's 2002 article endorsed alternative campaign finance reforms including publicly funded vouchers, free air time for challengers, and subsidized debates, among other things.

In 2005, Amar published a book analyzing the complete text of the Constitution, article by article and amendment by amendment.<ref name=":7"/> The book characterized the enactment of the Constitution as the big bang of the modern political world, thanks to a ratification process in which more people were allowed to vote on the basic ground rules of government than on anything in prior human history.<ref>Amar, ''America's Constitution: A Biography'', p.5</ref> Amar argued that the Constitution was more democratic, more attentive to geography and national security, and more accommodating of slavery at the Founding than previously understood by most scholars. He also continued arguing, as he had since 1987, that the Constitution was widely understood to prohibit unilateral secession. Amar's 2005 book won the annual 2006 ABA Silver Gavel award and has been cited by justices in nine cases.<ref>''Shelby County v. Holder'', 570 U.S. 529 (2013) (Ginsburg, J., dissenting); ''Evenwel v. Abbott'', 578 U.S. 54 (2017) (Alito, J. concurring) (Thomas, J., concurring); ''Gamble v. United States'', 587 U.S. 678 (2019) (Thomas, J., concurring) (Gorsuch, J., dissenting); ''United States v. Haymond'', 588 U.S. ___ (2019)(2019) (Alito, J., dissenting); ''Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico v. Aurelius Investment, LLC'', 590 U.S. ___ (2020) (Sotomayor, J., concurring); ''Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization'', 597 U.S. 215 (2022) (Kavanaugh, J., concurring); ''Haaland v. Brackeen'', 599 U.S. 255(2023) (Gorsuch, J., concurring); ''Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard'', 600 U.S. 181 (2023) (Thomas, J., concurring); ''United States v. Rahimi'', 602 U.S. 680 (2024) (Kavanaugh, J., concurring)</ref> As of April 2026, the book is in its 17th paperback printing.<ref>Amar, ''America's Constitution: A Biography''</ref>

===Sterling Professorship (2008–present)=== In his later career, Amar has continued to publish on constitutional structure, public law, and contemporary legal debates.

In 2011 and early 2012, Amar wrote a series of newspaper and online essays arguing that the Affordable Care Act was constitutional. He emphasized Congress's taxing power as a basis for the law's validity.<ref>''See, e.g.'', Amar, Akhil Reed, "How to Defend Obamacare,” ''Slate'' (Mar. 29, 2012); Amar, Akhil Reed and Brewster, Todd, “Rejecting Affordable Care Act is Rejecting Constitution,” ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' (Mar. 18, 2012); Amar, Akhil Reed, “Constitutional Showdown,” ''Los Angeles Times'' (Feb. 6, 2011)</ref> In line with this approach, the Supreme Court ultimately relied on a tax theory to uphold the key provisions of the law in ''National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius'' (2012).

Amar has also written about congressional procedure. In 2011 and 2013, he published a pair of essays in Slate and Roll Call (the first co-authored with former Senator Gary Hart) explaining how the Senate could, by a series of simple-majority votes, end or abridge supermajority filibuster rules.<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed and Hart, Gary, "How to End the Filibuster Forever,” ''Slate'' (Jan. 6, 2011); Amar, Akhil Reed, “Filibuster Changes Made Simple,” ''Roll Call'', (Jan. 22, 2013)</ref> In late 2013, the Senate used this simple-majority procedure to change its rules and confirm certain federal judicial nominees;<ref>{{cite web |title=Senate votes change in filibuster rules |url=https://www.americanbar.org/advocacy/governmental_legislative_work/publications/governmental_affairs_periodicals/washingtonletter/2013/november/filibuster/ |website=American Bar Association |access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref> In 2017, it did so again for a Supreme Court nomination.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Schor |first1=Elana |title=Senate confirms Gorsuch to Supreme Court |url=https://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/senate-confirms-gorsuch-to-supreme-court-237005 |website=Politico |access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref> According to Amar, “the nuclear-option genie is now out of the bottle,” and such procedures could be used more broadly in the future.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Amar |first1=Akhil Reed |title=The Nuclear-Option Genie is Out of the Bottle |url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2013/11/senate-goes-for-nuclear-option-and-nothing-will-ever-be-the-same.html |website=Slate |access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref>

In 2021, Amar and his brother Vik published a law review article arguing that when regulating federal elections, state legislatures are bound by their state constitutions.<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed & Amar, Vikram David, "[https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3731755 Eradicating Bush-League Arguments Root and Branch: The Article II Independent-State-Legislature Notion and Related Rubbish]", 2021 Supreme Court Review 1 (2022)</ref> In ''Moore v. Harper'' (2023), the Supreme Court adopted reasoning similar to the Amars’ article and strongly rejected the competing “independent state legislature” theory.

Amar has also written on the historical development of the Constitution. In 2021 and 2025, he published the first two volumes of a planned trilogy spanning the entire history of the American constitutional project.<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, ''The Words That Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840'' (Basic Books 2021); Amar, Akhil Reed, ''Born Equal: Remaking America's Constitution, 1840–1920'' (Basic Books 2025)</ref> These first two volumes argued that the original Constitution was shaped most significantly by George Washington and later transformed by Abraham Lincoln. In March 2026, the latter volume received the Abraham Lincoln Institute's annual book award.<ref>{{cite web |title=Professor Akhil Reed Amar's “Born Equal” Receives Annual Lincoln Institute Book Prize |url=https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/news/professor-akhil-reed-amars-born-equal-receives-annual-lincoln-institute-book-prize |website=Yale Law School News |access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref> In this work, Amar emphasized the concept of birth equality—the idea that American citizens born on American soil and under the American flag are all born equal, black or white, male or female, regardless of their parents’ religion or national origin or marital status or immigration status.<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, ''Born Equal: Remaking America's Constitution, 1840–1920'' (Basic Books 2025)</ref>

These themes have also informed his more recent public-facing scholarship and litigation-related writing. In 2026, Amar and his brother Vik authored a series of posts on SCOTUSblog in connection with an amicus brief in the birthright citizenship case, Trump v. Barbara.<ref>Amar, Akhil Reed, [https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25-365/397014/20260223124513596_BarbaraAmar_Amicus%20Document%20February%2023%202026%20EFile.pdf Amicus Brief in support of Respondents], ''Trump v. Barbara'' (2026).</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Amar |first1=Akhil Reed |last2=Amar |first2=Vikram David |title=SCOTUSBlog: Brothers in Law |url=https://www.scotusblog.com/columns/brothers-in-law/ |website=Column: Brothers in Law |publisher=SCOTUSblog |access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref> These writings drew on themes from Amar's 2025 book, ''Born Equal'', and elaborated the concept of equal citizenship “under the flag.” In oral argument on April 1, 2026, several justices made statements that appeared to mesh with the arguments and analysis advanced in the Amars’ amicus brief and SCOTUSblog posts.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Amar |first1=Akhil Reed |last2=Amar |first2=Vikram David |title=Birthright citizenship: oral argument highlights |url=https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/04/birthright-citizenship-oral-argument-highlights/ |website=Brothers in Law |publisher=SCOTUSblog |access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref>

== Personal life == Amar and his wife, Vinita Parkash, married in 1989 and have three children.<ref>[https://akhilamar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/akhil_amar_resume_2019-1.pdf Akhil Reed Amar résumé]</ref> Amar has identified himself as a Christian.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Akhil |first=Amar |title=''Amara Culpa, Amara Bena'' |publisher= Amarica's Constitution |url=https://open.spotify.com/episode/53D5jralyysEqWmx808Wej?si=VtznGN1UScCq4s87NyTLgA}}</ref>

==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}} * ''Born Equal: Remaking America's Constitution, 1840-1920'' (2025) {{ISBN|978-1-541-60519-0}}

===Articles=== * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | title = A Neo-Federalist View of Article III: Separating the Two Tiers of Federal Jurisdiction | journal = Boston University Law Review | year = 1985 | volume = 65 | number = 2 | pages = 205–272 | doi = | url = https://openyls.law.yale.edu/handle/20.500.13051/208?show=full }} * {{cite journal | first=Akhil Reed | last=Amar | author-mask = 1 | title=Of Sovereignty and Federalism | journal=Yale Law Journal | year=1987 | volume=96 | number=7 | pages=1425–1520 | url=https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2024&context=fss_papers | doi=10.2307/796493 | doi-access=free }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = Philadelphia Revisited: Amending the Constitution Outside Article V | journal = University of Chicago Law Review | year = 1988 | volume = 55 | number = 4 | pages = 1043–1104 | doi = 10.2307/1599782 | url = https://openyls.law.yale.edu/handle/20.500.13051/213 }} * {{cite journal | first=Akhil Reed | last=Amar | author-mask = 1 | title=''Marbury'', Section 13, and the Original Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court | journal=University of Chicago Law Review | year=1989 | volume=56 | number=2 | pages=443–99 | doi=10.2307/1599844 | url=http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2019&context=fss_papers }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = The Bill of Rights As a Constitution | journal = Yale Law Journal | year = 1991 | volume = 100 | number = 5 | pages = 1131–1210 | doi = 10.2307/796690 | url = https://openyls.law.yale.edu/handle/20.500.13051/224 }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = Child Abuse As Slavery: A Thirteenth Amendment Response to DeShaney | journal = Harvard Law Review | year = 1992 | volume = 105 | number = 6 | pages = 1359–85| doi = | url = https://openyls.law.yale.edu/handle/20.500.13051/229 }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = The Case of the Missing Amendments: ''R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul'' | journal = Harvard Law Review | year = 1992 | volume = 106 | number = 1 | pages = 124–61| doi = | url = https://openyls.law.yale.edu/handle/20.500.13051/230 }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = The Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment | journal = Yale Law Journal | year = 1992 | volume = 101 | number = 6 | pages = 1193–1284 | doi = 10.2307/796923 | url = https://openyls.law.yale.edu/handle/20.500.13051/232 | doi-access = free }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = The Consent of the Governed: Constitutional Amendment Outside Article V | journal = Columbia Law Review | year = 1994 | volume = 94 | number = 2 | pages = 457–508 | doi = 10.2307/1123201 | url = https://openyls.law.yale.edu/handle/20.500.13051/5403 | doi-access = free }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = Fourth Amendment First Principles | journal = Harvard Law Review | year = 1994 | volume = 107 | number = 4 | pages = 757–819 | doi = 10.2307/1341994 | url = https://openyls.law.yale.edu/handle/20.500.13051/5404 }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | first2 = Vikram David | last2 = Amar | title = Is the Presidential Succession Law Constitutional? | journal = Stanford Law Review | year = 1995 | volume = 48 | number = 1 | page = 113 | doi = | url = https://openyls.law.yale.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/322604e9-d991-425d-bd2d-1ba76129a027/contenthttps://openyls.law.yale.edu/handle/20.500.13051/5404 }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = Reinventing Juries: Ten Suggested Reforms | journal = UC Davis Law Review | year = 1995 | volume = 28 | number = 4 | pages = 1169–1194| doi = | url =https://lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/archives/28/4/reinventing-juries-ten-suggested-reforms}} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | first2 = Renée B. | last2 = Lettow | title = Fifth Amendment First Principles: The Self-Incrimination Clause | journal = Michigan Law Review | year = 1995 | volume = 93 | number = 5 | pages = 1193–1284 | doi = | url = https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol93/iss5/2/ }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = Foreword: Sixth Amendment First Principles | journal = Georgetown Law Journal | year = 1995 | volume = 84 | number = | pages = 641–712 | doi = | url = https://openyls.law.yale.edu/handle/20.500.13051/5353 }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = Attainder and Amendment 2: Romer's Rightness | journal = Michigan Law Review | year = 1996 | volume = 95 | number = 1 | pages = 203 | doi = | url = https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol95/iss1/5/ }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = Intratextualism | journal = Harvard Law Review | year = 1999 | volume = 112 | number = 4 | pages = 747–827 | doi = 10.2307/1342297 | url = https://openyls.law.yale.edu/handle/20.500.13051/5255 }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = The Supreme Court, 1999 Term; Foreword: The Document and the Doctrine | journal = Harvard Law Review | year = 2000 | volume = 114 | number = 1 | pages = 26–134| doi = | url = https://akhilamar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/The-Document-and-the-Doctrine.pdf }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = ''Heller'', ''HLR'', and Holistic Legal Reasoning | journal = Harvard Law Review | year = 2008 | volume = 122 | number = 1 | pages = 145–190 | doi = | url = https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-122/heller-hlr-and-holistic-legal-reasoning/ }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = Bush, Gore, Florida, and the Constitution | journal = Florida Law Review | year = 2009 | volume = 61 | number = 5 | pages = 945–68 | doi = | url = https://openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.13051/5190/Bush__Gore__Florida__and_the_Constitution.pdf?sequence=2 }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = Applications and Implications of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment | journal = Houston Law Review | year = 2010 | volume = 47 | number = 1 | pages = | doi = | url = https://houstonlawreview.org/article/4253-applications-and-implications-of-the-twenty-fifth-amendment }} * Amar, Akhil Reed, ''The Lawfulness of Health-Care Reform'' (June 1, 2011). Yale Law School, Public Law Working Paper No. 228, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1856506 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1856506 * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = America's Lived Constitution | journal = Yale Law Journal | year = 2011 | volume = 120 | number = | pages = 1734 | doi = | url = https://yalelawjournal.org/pdf/976_2zxk72cx.pdf }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = The Lawfulness of Section 5 — and Thus of Section 5 | journal = Harvard Law Review | year = 2013 | volume = 126 | number = 4 | pages = 109–121 | doi = | url = https://harvardlawreview.org/forum/vol-126/the-lawfulness-of-section-5-and-thus-of-section-5/ }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = The First Amendment's Firstness | journal = Yale Law Journal | year = 2014 | volume = 47 | number = 4 | pages = 1015 | doi = | url = https://lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk15026/files/media/documents/47-4_Amar.pdf }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = Lex Majoris Partis: How the Senate Can End the Filibuster on Any Day by Simple Majority Rule | journal = Duke Law Journal | year = 2014 | volume = 47 | number = 4 | pages = 1483–1502 | doi = | url = https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/dlj/vol63/iss7/2/ }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | first2 = Vikram David | last2 = Amar | title = Eradicating Bush-League Arguments Root and Branch: The Article II Independent State Legislature Notion and Related Rubbish | journal = Supreme Court Review | year = 2021 | volume = 2021 | number = 4 | pages = 1–51 | doi = 10.1086/720128 | url = https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/720128 | url-access = subscription }} * {{cite journal | first = Akhil Reed | last = Amar | author-mask = 1 | title = Term Limits/Time Rules for Future Justices: Eighteen Arguments for Eighteen Years | journal = CATO Supreme Court Review | year = 2021 | volume = 2021 | number = 4 | pages = 9 | doi = | url = https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/2023-09/cato-supreme-court-review-1.pdf }}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://law.yale.edu/akhil-reed-amar Yale Law School bio] *[https://fedsoc.org/contributors/akhil-amar Page at the Federalist Society] *[https://akhilamar.com Professor Amar's home page] *[http://www.law.columbia.edu/fac/Akhil_Amar Columbia Law School biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160829123705/http://www.law.columbia.edu/fac/Akhil_Amar |date=August 29, 2016 }} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060901182258/https://law.pepperdine.edu/academics/faculty/amar.html Views on the Supreme Court] *[http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2008/02/07/gravels-justice-of-choice-amar/ Gravel's Justice of Choice] *{{C-SPAN|13026}} *SCOTUSblog: [https://www.scotusblog.com/author/amar/ Akhil and Vikram Amar, Recurring Columnists—Brothers in Law] *[https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/amaricas-constitution/id1549624070 Podcast: Amarica's Constitution] {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amar, Akhil Reed}} Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:Writers from Ann Arbor, Michigan Category:Harvard Law School faculty Category:Pepperdine University faculty Category:American scholars of constitutional law Category:Yale Law School alumni Category:Yale Law School faculty Category:Yale Sterling Professors Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:American academics of Indian descent Category:Yale College alumni Category:University of Pennsylvania Law School faculty