Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People

David C. Baum Memorial Lecture on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

"Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People"

Presented by Nikolas Bowie
Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law 
Harvard Law School

Free and open to the public, with a limited number of lunches available for attendees.
Books will be available for purchase.

About the Speaker

Nikolas Bowie is the Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is a historian who teaches courses in federal constitutional law, state constitutional law, and local government law. His research focuses on critical legal histories of democracy in the United States.

With Daphna Renan, he is the author of the forthcoming book, Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People (W.W. Norton & Co., September 2026).

Professor Bowie was the 2021 recipient of the Sacks-Freund Award for Teaching Excellence from the graduating class at Harvard Law School. His scholarship has appeared in many publications, including the Harvard Law Review, the Law and History Review, the Stanford Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, and the New York Times. He has also written a casebook, Federal Constitutional Law (Foundation Press, 2022). 

In addition to teaching and writing, Professor Bowie is active in local government and in the civil rights community in the Boston area. He is on the boards of the American Association of University Professors, Lawyers for Civil Rights, and People’s Parity Project. He is also an avid marathoner.

Professor Bowie received a BA in history from Yale and a JD and PhD in history from Harvard. He clerked for Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the US Supreme Court.

About the David C. Baum Memorial Lecture Series
The family and friends of David C. Baum endowed the David C. Baum Memorial Lecture on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights not only in his memory, but at his request.

Deep concern for the dignity and rights of all people was central to Professor Baum’s character and activities. After receiving his undergraduate and legal education at Harvard University, Professor Baum served as law clerk for Justice Walter V. Schaefer of the Illinois Supreme Court, 1959-60. He then practiced law with the Chicago firm of Ross, McGowan, Hardies and O’Keefe until he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois College of Law in 1963.

Professor Baum was an inspiration to his student and colleagues, not only because of the excellence of his teaching, scholarship, and public service, but because of his remarkable human qualities. Conscientious and judicious, blending passion for justice with dispassionate objectivity, he inspired the highest level of discourse and endeavor in all who had the privilege of knowing and working with him.

It is hoped that the David C. Baum Memorial Lecture on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights will constitute a fitting memorial to a man whose unrelenting intellectual vigor and moral commitment made his presence in the world of law invaluable.