Akhil Reed Amar

Akhil Amar
Akhil Amar
	Amar in 2014
Born	September 6, 1958; Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.
Education	Yale University (BA, JD)
Title	Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science
Relatives	Vikram Amar (brother)
Awards	Paul M. Bator Award (1993); American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007); Barry Prize (2024)
Academic work
Discipline	Constitutional law
Institutions	Yale University
Notable students	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; Maggie Goodlander;

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.

Born in Michigan and raised in California, Amar was an undergraduate at Yale College before receiving his legal education at Yale Law School. After clerking for Judge (later Justice) Stephen Breyer, he became an assistant professor at Yale Law School.

Amar is an affiliate of the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society, with his work receiving awards from both organizations. His work has been cited in more than fifty U.S. Supreme Court cases by justices nominated by presidents of both parties. According to a 2021 study of lifetime scholarly citations by Fred R. Shapiro, Amar is the second most-cited American legal scholar still under age 70.