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Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights
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75
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
75/100Critics
75/100Scholars
Author:
Erwin Chemerinsky
Publisher:
Liveright
Date:
August 24, 2021
A work of civil rights and legal history, Presumed Guilty reveals how the Supreme Court has enabled racist policing and sanctioned law enforcement excesses through its decisions over the last half-century.
What The Reviewers Say
... stunning.
Chemerinsky provides an insightful primer for understanding the judicial decisions that support the United States’ prevailing authoritarian, paramilitary, racist approach to policing. He points out problems but also lays out steps to overcoming the Supreme Court’s consistent failure. A thoughtful, provocative, and instructive must-read for anyone concerned with justice and domestic tranquility..
... comprehensive but readable.
While some might see Chemerinsky’s claim as blasphemous, others will praise the cleansing light he shines on the Supreme Court’s role in perpetuating the problems of our criminal justice system. Racism is not new; excessive force by police is not new; flagrant disregard for constitutional rights is not new. What is new, however, is that someone as distinguished and respected as Chemerinsky is willing to lay out in black and white the Supreme Court’s complicity in the problems that plague our justice system. Chemerinsky masterfully presents his arguments by tying together current events with major Supreme Court decisions that laid the foundation for those conflicts.
