Michael Waldman at Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store welcomes MICHAEL WALDMAN—president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law—for a discussion of his new book The Supermajority: The Year the Supreme Court Divided America.

About The Supermajority

In The Supermajority, Michael Waldman explores the tumultuous 2021­–2022 Supreme Court term. He draws deeply on history to examine other times the Court veered from the popular will, provoking controversy and backlash. And he analyzes the most important new rulings and their implications for the law and for American society. Waldman asks: What can we do when the Supreme Court challenges the country?

Over three days in June 2022, the conservative supermajority overturned the constitutional right to abortion, possibly opening the door to reconsider other major privacy rights, as Justice Clarence Thomas urged. The Court sharply limited the authority of the EPA, reducing the prospects for combatting climate change. It radically loosened curbs on guns amid an epidemic of mass shootings. It fully embraced legal theories such as “originalism” that will affect thousands of cases throughout the country.

These major decisions—and the next wave to come—will have enormous ramifications for every American.

It was the most turbulent term in memory—with the leak of the opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, the first Black woman justice sworn in, and the justices turning on each other in public, Waldman previews the 2022–2023 term and how the brewing fights over the Supreme Court and its role that already have begun to reshape politics.

The Supermajority is a revelatory examination of the Supreme Court at a time when its dysfunction—and the demand for reform—are at the center of public debate.

Praise for The Supermajority

"Compulsively readable and urgent, The Supermajority briskly details the Supreme Court’s past, while meticulously documenting its impact on our present and future. At every turn, Waldman’s unsparing eye and clear voice illustrate how the Court’s veneer of neutrality has yielded to a cynical political calculus that makes every case a potential landmine for justice and democracy." —Melissa Murray, Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law, New York University School of Law

"In The Supermajority, Michael Waldman makes a compelling historical, political and legal case against the current Supreme Court. He shows how the conservative Justices who now dominate the Court have already damaged the lives of countless Americans and are poised to wreak more havoc. The Supermajority is a biting analysis and a timely warning." —Jeffrey Toobin, author of Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right Wing Extremism

"Michael Waldman's powerful account of the Supreme Court and how the current supermajority came to be and the dangerous consequences of their decisions is a must-read account of our most important legal institution—troubling, provocative, insightful, and engaging all at the same time." —Julian E. Zelizer, coauthor of Myth America, Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs, Princeton University

Mask Policy

Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.