Akhil Reed Amar

Akhil Reed Amar graduated from Yale College, summa cum laude, in 1980 and from Yale Law School in 1984. After graduating, he clerked for Judge (later Justice) Stephen Breyer, and in 1985, Amar joined the Yale faculty at the age of 26. Amar is now the Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, teaching constitutional law at both Yale College and Yale Law School. He is Yale’s only living professor to receive the combination of the Sterling Chair for scholarship, the Lamar Award for alumni service, and the DeVane Medal for teaching.  

As a legal scholar, Amar has published more than a hundred law review articles and has authored several books, including The Bill of Rights (1998—winner of the Yale University Press Governors’ Award), America’s Constitution (2005—winner of the ABA’s Silver Gavel Award), America’s Unwritten Constitution (2012—named one of the year’s 100 best nonfiction books by the Washington Post), and The Constitution Today (2016—named one of the year’s top ten nonfiction books by Time magazine). Some of his writing appears in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Time, and the Atlantic. He also runs a podcast called America’s Constitution.

Amar has been cited by Supreme Court justices in more than four dozen cases. He regularly testifies before Congress at the invitation of both major parties, and his work has won awards from both the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he was an informal consultant to the popular TV show The West Wing.