Anthony G Amsterdam

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.