Civil Discourse Symposium

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

Amar’s work has won awards from both the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society, and he has been cited by Supreme Court justices across the spectrum in more than four dozen cases — tops among non-emeritus scholars. He regularly testifies before Congress at the invitation of both parties; and in surveys of judicial citations and/or scholarly citations, he typically ranks among America’s five most-cited mid-career legal scholars. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has written widely for popular publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and The Atlantic. He was an informal consultant to the popular TV show The West Wing and his scholarship has been showcased on many broadcasts, including The Colbert Report, Morning Joe, AC360, 11th Hour with Brian Williams, Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream, Fareed Zakaria GPS, Erin Burnett Outfront, and Constitution USA with Peter Sagal.

He is the author of more than a hundred law review articles and several books, most notably 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). His latest and most ambitious book, The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840, came out in May 2021. He has recently launched a weekly podcast, Amarica’s Constitution. A wide assortment of his articles and op-eds and video links to many of his public lectures and free online courses may be found at akhilamar.com. 

Shaakirrah R. Sanders serves as Associate Dean for Antiracism and Critical Pedagogy, as the Lewis H. Vovakis Distinguished Faculty Scholar, as Professor of Law. She teaches Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, and the First Amendment.

Professor Sanders is a contributor for SCOTUSblog and has appeared on international and national broadcasts and publications, including MSNBC, CBC News, NBC News NOW, NEWSNATION, Scripps News, New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, BuzzFeed, Glamour Magazine, YahooNews!, NPR, and NPR’s All Things Considered. Her scholarship relates to felony sentencing reform, civil and criminal jury trial rights, and commercial privacy and has been published in Cornell Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, Irvine Law Review, Washington and Lee Law Review, Michigan Journal of Law Reform, Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, and Hastings Law Journal among other publications. She also contributed commentary for edited collections, including Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court; Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Torts Opinions; The Contested Place of Religion in Family Law; and Mass Communication Law in Idaho.

Prior to joining the legal academy, Professor Sanders served as a judicial law clerk in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit for the Honorable Lavenski R. Smith, current Chief Judge, and in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana for the Honorable Ivan L.R. Lemelle. She also practiced in Seattle, Washington at K&L Gates and the Public Defender Association and in New Orleans, Louisiana at Locke Lord.

Professor Sanders attended Loyola University New Orleans College of Law where she served as Index/Casenote Editor on the Loyola Law Review and was named a William Crowe Scholar upon graduation. In 2004, Professor Sanders was selected as a Pegasus Scholar and participated in a legal exchange program between the United States and the United Kingdom. She received a B.S. in Psychology from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and currently serves on its Board of Fellows.

Professor Sanders has inactive bar admissions in Louisiana, New York, and Washington, as well as various federal district and circuit courts. She serves as the national board representative for Idaho, as one of three general counsels, and on the Executive Committee for the ACLU National Board. She formerly chaired the AALS Section on Constitutional Law (2018-19), AALS Section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (2021-22), and the Idaho State Advisory Committee for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In 2022, she was named Outstanding Scholar and Conference Honoree at the 15th Annual Lutie A. Lytle Commemorative Black Women Law Faculty Workshop and Conference and in 2020 she received the University of Idaho College of Law Diversity and Human Rights Award.

Prior to joining Penn State Dickinson Law in 2023, Professor Sanders was the first Black, African American to achieve the rank of full professor at the University of Idaho and its College of Law.