Amsterdam, Anthony

Anthony Amsterdam (1935–) is an author and a law professor at the New York University School of Law. A graduate of Haverford College and University of Pennsylvania Law School, Amsterdam clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and wrote an influential article on the Fourth Amendment. In his writings about Fourth Amendment issues, Amsterdam has advanced the argument that “the Fourth Amendment requires all police search and seizure activity to be regulated by legal directives that confine police discretion within reasonable bounds” (Amsterdam 1974, 416).

Amsterdam has had an important impact upon death penalty litigation in the United States. He has appeared in numerous cases and argued before the Supreme Court. He argued and won Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), a seminal decision that dealt with the arbitrary imposition of the death penalty and the need for a degree of consistency in its application. A de facto moratorium on capital punishment existed for a few years during which time dozens of states enacted statutes to address Furman, ending when the Supreme Court decided Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153 (1976), which Amsterdam also argued.

Amsterdam and those he has worked with and mentored have remained active in the death penalty area for decades, continuing to raise issues regarding ineffective assistance of counsel, racial disparities, and the imposition of the death penalty on juveniles and persons with mental disabilities or illnesses. Amsterdam's academic and pro bono work has focused on civil rights, journalistic freedom, international human rights, and clinical legal education. Amsterdam has also been involved in litigating cases concerning access to courts for the detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Amsterdam has played a leading role in the American Bar Association's Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project, which is involved in determining how best to assess various state death penalty statutes. His keynote address at a moratorium symposium is published in 4 N.Y. City L. Rev. 117 (2002).