{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260417T143742Z-pairingsrefresh","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385547382?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"0385547382","authors":["Brando Simeo Starkey"],"book_id":"9780385547383","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/their-accomplices-wore-robes-0385547382","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780385547383.jpg?v=20260417T143742Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-17T16%3A17%3A56Z","description":"A magisterial new history of the role of the Supreme Court as an ally in implementing and preserving a racial caste system in America Their Accomplices Wore Robes takes readers from the Civil War era to the present and describes how the Supreme Court—even more than the presidency or Congress—aligned with the enemies of Black progress to undermine the promise of the Constitution’s Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. The Reconstruction Amendments—which sought to abolish slavery, establish equal protection under the law, and protect voting rights—converted the Constitution into a potent anti-caste document. But in the years since, the Supreme Court has refused to allow the amendments to fulfill that promise. Time and again, when petitioned to make the nation’s founding conceit—that all men are created equal—real for Black Americans, the nine black robes have chosen white supremacy over racial fairness. Their Accomplices Wore Robes brings to life dozens of cases and their rich casts of characters—petitioners, attorneys, justices—to explain how America arrived at this point and how society might arrive somewhere better, even as today’s federal courts lurch rightward. In this groundbreaking grand history, Brando Simeo Starkey reveals a troubling and dark aspect of American history.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780385547383","publication_date":"20250603","publisher":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group","slug":"their-accomplices-wore-robes","subtitle":"How the Supreme Court Chained Black America to the Bottom of a Racial Caste System","title":"Their Accomplices Wore Robes"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"POL040030","confidence_band":"high","label":"Courts & the Judiciary","score":0.8147,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036070","confidence_band":"medium","label":"21st-Century America","score":0.7343,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"BIO002010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Black & African American Lives","score":0.7298,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"POL040030","confidence_band":"high","label":"Courts & the Judiciary","score":0.8147,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036070","confidence_band":"medium","label":"21st-Century America","score":0.7343,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"BIO002010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Black & African American Lives","score":0.7298,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BIO020000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Lawyers & Judges","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036000","confidence_band":"high","label":"U.S. History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"POL040030","confidence_band":"high","label":"Courts & the Judiciary","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Courts & the Judiciary","score":0.8147,"slug":"courts-the-judiciary"},{"label":"21st-Century America","score":0.7343,"slug":"21st-century-america"},{"label":"Black & African American Lives","score":0.7298,"slug":"black-african-american-lives"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Courts & the Judiciary","Good for readers interested in juneteenth","Good for readers who enjoy Courts & the Judiciary and 21st-Century America."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Thom Hartmann","Sean Pratt","Berrett-Koehler Publishers","& 0 more"],"book_id":"9781523085941","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781523085941.jpg?v=20260417T143742Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-17T16%3A17%3A56Z","score":18.2831,"title":"The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781523085941"},{"authors":["Robert H. 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