Vikram David Amar

Publications

• Correcting Confusion Over Commandeering, Supremacy, and Preemption: A User’s Guide to Modern Federalism
  53 PEPP. L. REV. 485 (2026) · Pepperdine Law Review · 2026
• Locating Free-Exercise Most-Favored-Nation-Status (MFN) Reasoning in Constitutional Context
  54 LOY. U. CHI. L.J. 777 (2023) · Loyola University Chicago Law Journal · 2023
• Taking (Equal Voting) Rights Seriously: The Fifteenth Amendment as Constitutional Foundation, and the Need for Judges to Remodel Their Approach to Age Discrimination in Political Rights
  97 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 1619 (2022) · Notre Dame Law Review · 2022
• Eradicating Bush-League Arguments Root and Branch: The Article II Independent-State-Legislature Notion and Related Rubbish
  2021 SUP. CT. REV. (2021) · Supreme Court Review · 2021
• Insights from Democracy and Distrust Bearing on Rucho and Partisan Gerrymandering
  36 CONST. COMMENT. 333 (2021) · Constitutional Commentary · 2021
• The Power to “Try” “Cases of Impeachment”: Some Reflections on the Finality, Transparency and Integrity of Senate Adjudications of Presidential Impeachments (Including that of Donald J. Trump)
  95 CHI.-KENT. L. REV. 455 (2021) · Chicago-Kent Law Review · 2021
• The Role of Lawyers and Law Schools in Fostering Civil Public Debate
  Connecticut Law Review · 2021

• What an Extension of Free Speech Rights to Animals Might Mean, Doctrinally Speaking
  95 DENV. L. REV. 857 (2018) · Denver Law Review · 2018
• Federalism Friction in the First Year of the Trump Presidency
  45 UC L. CONST. Q. 401 (2018) · UC Law Constitutional Quarterly · 2018
• “Clarifying” Murphy’s Law: Did Something Go Wrong in Reconciling Commandeering and Conditional Preemption Doctrines?
  2018 SUP. CT. REV. (2018) · Supreme Court Review · 2018
• A Comparative Analysis of the Academic Freedom of Public University Professors
  14 FIRST AMEND. L. REV. (2018) · First Amendment Law Review · 2018
• The Vice Presidency in Five (Sometimes) Easy Pieces
  44 PEPP. L. REV. 623 (2017) · Pepperdine Law Review · 2017
• Why I So Enjoyed Learning With and From Calvin Massey
  15 U. N. H. L. REV. (2017) · The University of New Hampshire Law Review · 2017
• A Close-Up, Modern Look at First Amendment Academic Freedom Rights of Public College Students and Faculty
  101 MINN. L. REV. 1943 (2017) · Minnesota Law Review · 2017
• The Voracious First Amendment: Alvarez and Knox in the context of 2012 and Beyond
  46 LOY. L. A. L. REV. 491 (2013) · Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review · 2013
• Reviewing Associational Freedom Claims in a Limited Public Forum: An Extension of the Distinction between Debate-Dampening and Debate-Distorting State Action
  38 UC L. CONST. Q. 505 (2011) · UC Law Constitutional Quarterly · 2011
• Reflections on the Doctrinal and Big-Picture Issues Raised by the Constitutional Challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
  6 FIU L. REV. 9 (2010) · FIU Law Review · 2010
• How Senate Confirmation Hearings Should Better Educate Senators and the American Pubic: The Instructional Necessity of Case-Specific Questioning
  61 UC L.J. 1407 (2010) · UC Law Journal · 2010

• Lessons from California's Recent Experience with Its Non-Unitary (Divided) Executive: Of Mayors, Governors, Controllers, and Attorneys General
  59 EMORY L.J. 469 (2009) · Emory Law Journal · 2009
• Business and Constitutional Originalism in the Roberts Court
  49 SANTA CLARA L. REV. 979 (2009) · Santa Clara Law Review · 2009
• Are Statutes Constraining Gubernatorial Power to Make Temporary Appointments to the United States Senate Constitutional under the Seventeenth Amendment
  35 UC L. CONST. Q. 727 (2008) · UC Law Constitutional Quarterly · 2008
• Direct Democracy and Article II: Additional Thoughts on Initiatives and Presidential Elections
  35 UC L. CONST. Q. 631 (2008) · UC Law Constitutional Quarterly · 2008
• Roundtable Discussion
  35 PEPP. L. REV. (2008) · Pepperdine Law Review · 2008
• Criminal Justice
  35 PEPP. L. REV. (2008) · Pepperdine Law Review · 2008
• Converse 1983 Suits in Which States Police Federal Agents: An Ideas Whose Time Has Arrived
  69 BROOK. L. REV. 1369 (2004) · Brooklyn Law Review · 2004
• How Much Protection Do Injunctions Against Enforcement of Allegedly Unconstitutional Statutes Provide?
  31 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 657 (2004) · Fordham Urban Law Journal · 2004
• Why the Case for Amending the U.S. Constitution to Prohibit or Regulate Gay Marriage is Not Proved
  32 UC L. CONST. Q. 637 (2004) · UC Law Constitutional Quarterly · 2004
• Adventures in Direct Democracy: The Top Ten Constitutional Lessons from the California Recall Experience
  92 CAL. L. REV. 927 (2004) · California Law Review · 2004
• Constitutional Sunsetting: Justice O'Connor's Closing Comments in Grutter
  30 UC L. CONST. Q. 541 (2003) · UC Law Constitutional Quarterly · 2003
• The Many Ways to Prove Discrimination
  14 HASTINGS WOMEN'S L.J. 171 (2003) · UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice · 2003
• The People Made Me Do It: Can the People of the States Instruct and Coerce Their State Legislatures in the Article V Constitutional Amendment Process?
  41 WM. & MARY L. REV. 1037 (2000) · William & Mary Law Review · 2000

• From Watergate to Ken Starr: Potter Stewart's "Or of the Press" a Quarter Century Later
  50 UC L.J. 711 (1999) · UC Law Journal · 1999
• The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth About "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" and the Constitution's Impeachment Process
  16 CONST. COMMENT. 403 (1999) · Constitutional Commentary · 1999
• Some Questions and Answers Concerning Justice Blackmun in Federalism and Separation of Powers Cases
  26 UC L. CONST. Q. 153 (1998) · UC Law Constitutional Quarterly · 1998
• Recent Cases: The Equal Protection Challenge to Proposition 209
  5 ASIAN AM. L.J. 323 (1998) · Asian American Law Journal · 1998
• The Hunter Doctrine and Proposition 209: A Reply to Thomas Wood
  24 UC L. CONST. Q. 1001 (1997) · UC Law Constitutional Quarterly · 1997
• Equal Protection, Unequal Political Burdens, and the CCRI
  23 UC L. CONST. Q. 1019 (1996) · UC Law Constitutional Quarterly · 1996
• Indirect Effects of Direct Election: A Structural Examination of the Seventh Amendment
  49 VAND. L. REV. 1347 (1996) · Vanderbilt Law Review · 1996
• Jury Service as Political Participation Akin to Voting
  80 CORNELL L. REV. 203 (1995) · Cornell Law Review · 1995
• Some Questions about Perfectionist Rationality Review
  45 UC L.J. 1029 (1994) · UC Law Journal · 1994