Abraham Lincoln, Originalist | Interview: Akhil Amar

Advisory Opinions

The Dispatch

News, Politics, Government

4.8 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Akhil Amar, Sterling Professor of law and political science at Yale, joins Sarah and David for a deep dive into the constitutional battles and amendments that ended slavery, offering a preview of his forthcoming book, Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840–1920. The Agenda:—Exploring originalism and American identity—Our canonical texts—The Second Amendment and originalism—The evolution of constitutional interpretation—‘His errors were symmetric’—Harriet Beecher Stowe: America’s first female superstar Show Notes:—Read "Brothers In Law" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ready?
0:01.0	I was born ready.
0:04.0	Welcome to advisory opinions. I'm Sarah Isger. That's David French. And do we have a special
0:23.7	guest for y'all today? Should I tell you? Or should we just wait until after the break? His new book
0:30.8	Born Equal coming out September 16th, the day before Constitution Day. I think I've given you
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	...

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