Season 2, Episode 11 (Show 63): Lawyer of the Century

March 16, 2022

Our “role models” series concludes with a truly remarkable individual:  Telford Taylor.  From Nuremberg to Vietnam; from McCarthy to Calley, he put the law into the service of America during a long and amazing career. Along the way, he inspired Professor Amar’s scholarship and admiration.

Walter Dellinger and Charles Black are hard acts to follow, but our concluding role model is up to the task.  Telford Taylor was legislator, war hero, Nuremberg prosecutor, international law pioneer, law firm founder, tenured professor and scholar extraordinaire, public intellectual, and always a principled, skilled lawyer.  Professor Amar admired his work from afar, and that admiration led to a personal meeting, to Akhil’s first major law review article in the Harvard Law Review, and ultimately, to the opening scene of his latest book.  Meanwhile, in the news, we also take time to look at the latest developments, statements, and misstatements filling the air on the notorious Texas abortion law, SB8.

Show Notes:

Telford Taylor’s book, adapted from his Columbia lectures on the Fourth Amendment, which Professor Amar fatefully took a look at in the stacks of the Yale Law Library.

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Fourth Amendment, First Principles - Harvard Law Review

Professor Amar’s article in the Harvard Law Review, based upon his Columbia lectures.  Akhil’s first major HLS article.  Dedicated to Telford Taylor.  HLR, 107:757-819.

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Opening Statement in the Nuremberg “Justice Case,” February 13, 1947, delivered by General Telford Taylor.

Miranda v. Arizona, Oral Argument, US Supreme Court.  Delivered by Telford Taylor.