Nationality United States Awards MacArthur Fellowship Role Lawyer | Name Anthony Amsterdam Institutions NYU School of Law | |
Born 1935 (age 79–80) Fields Civil and political rights Books Minding the Law, Trial Manual for Defense Attorneys in Juvenile Delinquency Cases Education University of Pennsylvania Law School, Haverford College | ||
Anthony Guy Amsterdam (born September 12, 1935) is an American lawyer and professor of law at New York University School of Law. In 1981, Alan Dershowitz called Amsterdam “the most distinguished law professor in the United States.”
Amsterdam grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in West Philadelphia.
Working with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Amsterdam argued and won Furman v. Georgia in 1972, in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on the requirement for a degree of consistency in the application of the death penalty. He sits on the board of directors of the Death Penalty Information Center.
Amsterdam was educated at Haverford College and University of Pennsylvania School of Law. He also wrote one of the most influential papers on the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1977.