Professors Amar, Brownstein Examine 'Internal Incoherence' of Trump Officials' Letter to Harvard

Professor Vikram Amar and Professor Emeritus Alan Brownstein wrote an April 25 essay for Justia’s Verdict on the Trump administration’s April 11 demand letter to Harvard.

The pair acknowledge the constitutional questions surrounding the letter while noting that “it is also important to recognize the internal incoherence of and absence of intelligible principles within” it.

Amar and Brownstein spend much of the essay examining “whether the demands in the letter … make any sense, even on their own terms,” before determining that “both of us are clear in our view that this administration’s letter should never have been delivered to Harvard as written.”

Vikram Amar returned to UC Davis as a distinguished professor of law in 2023 after serving for eight years as dean and Iwan Foundation Professor of Law at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign College of Law. Before that, he was a professor and the senior associate dean for academic affairs at King Hall from 2008 to 2015.

Professor Brownstein, a nationally recognized constitutional law scholar, taught Constitutional Law, Law and Religion, and Torts at UC Davis School of Law for more than 30 years. Before his retirement from full-time teaching, he held the Boochever and Bird Endowed Chair for the Study and Teaching of Freedom and Equality.