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Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights Audiobook
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Presumed Guilty reveals how the Supreme Court allows the perpetuation of racist policing by presuming that suspects, especially people of color, are guilty.
Presumed Guilty, like the bestselling The Color of Law, is a “smoking gun” of civil rights research, a troubling history that reveals how the Supreme Court 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; it is the result of an elaborate body of doctrines that allow the police and courts to presume that suspects are guilty before being charged.
Demonstrating how the prodefendant Warren Court was a brief historical aberration, Erwin Chemerinsky shows how this more liberal era ended with Nixon’s presidency and the ascendance of conservative justices, whose rulings have permitted stops and frisks, limited suits to reform police departments, and even abetted the use of chokeholds.
Presumed Guilty concludes that an approach to policing that continues to exalt “Dirty Harry” can be transformed only by a robust court system committed to civil rights.
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“Suggests that because the Supreme Court will not restrain the police, state courts can and should invoke state constitutions in order to do so. Necessary reading for civil libertarians, public defenders, and activists.”
— Kirkus Reviews
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“Stunning…He bolsters his argument with examples from his own experiences…It is an eloquent and damning indictment not only of horrific police practices but also of the justices who condoned them and continue to do so.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“Cogently demonstrates in this book that the court bears much of the blame for police violence and racism in US law enforcement…[with its] prevailing authoritarian, paramilitary, racist approach to policing.”
— Library Journal (starred review) -
“Lucid explanations of constitutional law and Chemerinsky’s deep knowledge of the Supreme Court’s inner workings make this an essential contribution to the debate over police reform.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Incredibly insightful and powerfully written, Presumed Guilty could not be more timely.”
— George Gascón, Los Angeles district attorney -
“Erwin Chemerinsky, a national treasure in the field of constitutional law, makes a lucid and compelling case that the Supreme Court has all too often failed to ensure equal justice in the criminal legal system.”
— David Cole, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union
Awards
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A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice of the Week
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A Library Journal Editor’s Pick
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About Erwin Chemerinsky
Erwin Chemerinsky is the dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Prior to assuming this position, he was the founding dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, and a professor at Duke Law School, University of Southern California Law School, and DePaul Law School. He is the author of twelve books and over 250 law review articles. He is a contributing writer for the Opinion section of the Los Angeles Times and writes regular columns for the Sacramento Bee, the ABA Journal, and the Daily Journal and frequent op-eds in newspapers across the country. He frequently argues appellate cases, including in the United States Supreme Court. In 2016, he was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2017, National Jurist magazine again named him as the most influential person in legal education in the United States. In January 2021, he was named president-elect of the Association of American Law Schools.
About Perry Daniels
T. R. Harris is the author of the bestselling Human Chronicles, the Jason King: Agent to the Stars series, and the Drone War series, among other books.