Kamisar, Yale

Yale Kamisar (1929–) was a leading intellectual figure behind the formulation and temporary ascendance of the civil libertarian perspective on the constitutional rights of those suspected or accused of crimes during the Warren Court era. His law review articles are often credited with shaping the Warren Court's doctrinal interpretations in the area of criminal due process, including, most notably, in Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), dealing with the right to counsel, and Miranda v. Arizona (1966), which mandated warnings prior to police interrogations. Indeed, Francis Allen has called Kamisar “the father of the Miranda rule.”

Over the course of a career in the legal academy spanning more than five decades (1957 to 2011), Kamisar was incredibly prolific. He authored more than sixty law review articles, several books and casebooks, and more than a hundred magazine articles and newspaper op-ed pieces. While the bulk of his work focused on the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments, Kamisar also authored widely noted and often-reproduced articles on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. By one count, Kamisar has had nineteen law review article and four books cited in Supreme Court opinions thirty-three separate times. Kamisar had a penchant for “advocacy scholarship” and intellectual combat. Throughout his long career, he engaged in high-profile debates with adversaries such as Fred Inbau, Judge Malcolm Wilkey, and James Vorenberg. In 2004, two separate law journals—The Michigan Law Review and the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law—published tributes to Kamisar. A complete list of Kamisar's publications through 2004 can be found at The Michigan Law Review 102 (2004): 1776.

Kamisar grew up in the Bronx in New York City. He received his A.B. from New York University in 1950. He fought in the Korean War and earned the Purple Heart for his services. In 1954, he received an LLM from Columbia University. After two years in private practice, Kamisar joined the law school faculty at the University of Minnesota, where he taught until 1965. In that year, he accepted a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan. On his retirement from Michigan in 2004, he accepted another full-time appointment at the University of San Diego Law School. He retired from San Diego in 2011.