Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights (Liveright, 2021)

Please join us on Thursday, August 26, at 5 p.m. Eastern, for a 2021 History Book Festival virtual event with Erwin Chemerinsky, author of Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights (Liveright, 2021). Devon W. Carbado will be in conversation with Chemerinsky during the event. This event is free but registration is required.

About the book
Presumed Guilty is a troubling history that reveals how the Supreme Court has enabled racist policing and sanctioned law enforcement excesses. The fact that police are nine times more likely to kill Black men than other Americans is no accident, the author says, but the result of an elaborate body of doctrines that allow the police and courts to presume that suspects are guilty before being charged. Beginning during Nixon’s presidency, the ascendance of conservative justices has led to rulings permitting the practice of “stop and frisk,” limiting suits to reform police departments, and abetting the use of chokeholds. Chemerinsky argues that an approach to policing that continues to exalt “Dirty Harry” can be transformed only by a robust court system committed to civil rights.

About the author
Erwin Chemerinsky is the Dean of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. His other books include The Conservative Assault on the Constitution and The Case Against the Supreme Court.

Devon W. Carbado will be in conversation with Chemerinsky during the event. Carbado is the Hon. Harry Pregerson Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, where he writes and teaches on constitutional criminal procedure, constitutional law, and race and the law. His book, Unreasonable: Black Lives, Police Power, and the Fourth Amendment, is forthcoming from the New Press.

How to attend the online event
All registered attendees will receive a follow-up email from “LibCal” with Zoom log-in information. If you don’t receive this email after registering, please check your SPAM folder. If you still can’t locate the email, please contact info@historybookfestival.org.

Purchase the book
Please help support local independent bookstores by purchasing this book at Browseabout Books, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Online sources and digital versions are tempting; however, supporting local brick and mortar shops helps to preserve our vibrant main streets. Drop by Browseabout, order books online, or call the store at 302-226-2665. You also may purchase a copy at biblion in Lewes. Each copy purchased comes with a signed archival bookplate.

About the Festival
With the help of our presenting sponsors—Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty—as well as our community partners and volunteers, the 2021 History Book Festival will, once again, be full of great discussions online with authors of newly published narrative nonfiction and historical fiction.

Our 2021 Festival will follow last year’s format: allowing you to bring history home—and stay safe! We are extremely grateful for the virtual venue and assistance in event promotion provided by the Lewes Public Library, in conjunction with the Delaware Division of Libraries and Sussex County Libraries. Thanks also to Browseabout Books, our official bookseller, and the Cape Gazette, our media partner.