Berns was raised in Chicago, where, as late as 1926, he was impressed by "Union soldiers in the [Memorial Day] parade feebly carrying the standard.

Berns and Bloom were among a small cohort of professors who argued for the primacy of the liberal arts and for "academic freedom" to disagree with the changes and "new orthodoxy" spearheaded by University President James A. Perkins, such as the erosion of the core curriculum and the concessions to demands for a black-only college.

"[6] Once the student union takeover had been settled in favor of the protesters and after he had receiving personal threats, Berns resigned from Cornell and took up a position at the University of Toronto.

[6] Berns taught at Toronto until 1979, at which point he moved to Washington to teach at Georgetown and conduct constitutional law research at AEI.

His research interests at AEI included the US Constitution, constitution-making, political philosophy, patriotism, the Founding, the death penalty, freedom of speech, the electoral college, and Abraham Lincoln.

[2] Berns died of respiratory failure in Bethesda, Maryland, on January 10, 2015, aged 95,[1][9] on the same day as his fellow Straussian rival Harry V.