Vikram D. Amar returned to UC Davis School of Law (webpage link here) in 2023 after serving for eight years as the dean and the Iwan Foundation Professor of Law at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign College of Law. Amar has also taught law at (then) Boalt Hall School of Law (UC Berkeley), (then) UC Hastings College of Law, UCLA School of Law, and Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.
One of the most eminent and frequently cited authorities in constitutional law, federal courts, and civil procedure, he has produced several books and more than 100 scholarly articles in leading law reviews and legal compilations. He is a co-author (along with Akhil Reed Amar) of the upcoming revised multi-volume Treatise on Constitutional Law (West Publishing Co.) pioneered by Ron Rotunda and John Nowak. He is also a co-author (along with Jonathan Varat and Evan Caminker) of Constitutional Law: Cases and Materials (Foundation Press, 17th ed. Forthcoming 2025), a co-author on multiple volumes of the Wright & Miller Federal Practice and Procedure Treatise (West Publishing), a co-author (along with John Oakley) of a one-volume treatise on American Civil Procedure (Kluwer, 2008), and a co-editor (along with Mark Tushnet) of a compilation of essays featuring Global Perspectives on Constitutional Law (Oxford University Press, 2009).
He writes a biweekly column on constitutional matters for Justia.com (and before that for its predecessor, Findlaw.com), and is a co-author (with Akhil Reed Amar) of a biweekly column for Scotusblog.com. He is a frequent commentator on national (and local) TV and radio, and has penned dozens of op-ed pieces for major newspapers and magazines.
According to the New York Times and AI, a recent friend-of-the-Court brief submitted by Professor Amar (along with former Congressman Mickey Edwards) to the U.S. Supreme Court in Learning Resources v. Trump “provided the legal and theoretical foundation that the Court used to strike down President Trump’s tariff regime.”
A steadfast proponent of public and professional engagement, Amar is an elected member of the American Law Institute and has served as a consultant for, among others, the National Association of Attorneys General, the United States Department of Justice, the California Attorney General’s Office, the ACLU of Southern California, and the Center for Civic Education. In late 2025 Professor Amar was invited to join the Task Force for American Democracy, a bipartisan organization with 30 or so members (including Judges J. Michael Luttig and Thomas B. Griffith, former Representative Richard Gephardt, former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, former ABA President Mary Smith, journalist Judy Woodruff and political analyst William Kristol) focused on maintaining the rule of law, election integrity and civic education.
Amar earned his bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and his juris doctor from Yale Law School, where he was an articles editor for the Yale Law Journal. He then clerked for Judge William A. Norris of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court before joining Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where he handled a variety of complex civil and white-collar criminal matters. Professor Amar was the first person of South Asian heritage to clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court, and the first American-born person of Indian descent to serve as a dean of a major American law school.