Shielded won the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award!

I am over the moon that my book, Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable, has won the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel award.

The award is meant to recognize works “exemplary in fostering the American public’s understanding of law and the legal system,” and that is just what I aimed to do with Shielded - explain the many legal & bureaucratic barriers that make it so difficult for people wronged by police to get justice in the courts.

I describe these barriers and their impact through the stories of people whose lives were upended by police misconduct and then upended again by the courts. Learn about them on my website here, or in interviews I did on Fresh Air and Strict Scrutiny - or, heck, just get the book at bit.ly/ShieldedBook.

The other amazing finalists for this award illuminate the criminal legal system, the Supreme Court’s shadow docket, campaign $, free speech, FDR’s Supreme Court, and the Espionage Act - you should read them all too. https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2024/03/aba-names-silver-gavel-finalists/ I am honored to be in their company. And thanks to the ABA for this award! 

https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/murder-and-democracy-are-among-topics-addressed-by-2024-silver-gavel-winners#google_vignette

Shielded reviewed in the Harvard Law Review

Brandon Hasbrouck has published an exceedingly generous and thought-provoking review of Shielded in the Harvard Law Review. Brandon is an extraordinary writer and thinker - I am so appreciative that he directed those considerable talents to my book. Check it out!

The whole review can be found here: https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-137/unshielded-how-the-police-can-become-touchable/

Shielded reviewed by Linda Greenhouse in New York Review of Books!

Linda Greenhouse penned a fabulous review of Shielded and The Fear of Too Much Justice, a terrific book written by my mentor and friend Stephen Bright and James Kwak. Greenhouse writes:

"Schwartz maintains that while the concern that ‘public safety will be imperiled by too much oversight’ has always accompanied the desire to hold the police accountable, it is now nearly an unquestioned assumption that lawsuits against the police exact too high a price. . . . But this assumption, Schwartz contends, is a myth that has distorted the civil justice system by persuading judges of the need to insulate the police from accountability."

Check out the full review here: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/09/21/why-arent-cops-held-to-account-shielded-joanna-schwartz/