Nikolas Bowie & Daphna Renan — Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People -with Sherrilyn Ifill — at Conn Ave

Nikolas Bowie and Daphna Renan present *Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People*, a new history of the Supreme Court and the rise of “judicial supremacy.” They argue that the Court’s authority to invalidate acts of Congress is not an inevitable constitutional principle, but a power it accumulated—particularly after Reconstruction—to protect capital and white supremacy.

The Harvard legal scholars challenge both conservative and liberal assumptions about the Court’s role, including the left’s embrace of an ideology that can undermine its own goals. Their book recovers an alternative constitutional tradition shaped by abolitionists, labor leaders, and civil rights activists, and argues that constitutional power should return to Congress. Bowie and Renan will discuss the book with civil rights lawyer and scholar Sherrilyn Ifill.

When: Friday, September 18, 2026

Showtime: 7:00 p.m.

Tickets: Free

Seating: First come, first served.

Lineup: Nikolas Bowie, Daphna Renan, and Sherrilyn Ifill

Venue: Politics and Prose at 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008

Book: *Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People* by Nikolas Bowie and Daphna Renan

Author information: Nikolas Bowie is the Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and previously clerked for Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Daphna Renan is the Peter B. Munroe and Mary J. Munroe Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and previously clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Accessibility: To request accommodations or ask accessibility questions, email events@politics-prose.com, ideally at least one week before the event. The venue will make an effort to accommodate requests made up to the event time.