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Bad Law
In this New York Times bestseller, Elie Mystal offers a brilliant takedown of ten shocking pieces of legislation that continue to perpetuate hate, racial bias, injustice, and inequality today—an urgent yet hopeful read for our current political climate
“Mystal is a grassroots legal superhero, and his superpower is the ability to explain to the masses in clear language the all-too-human forces at play behind the making of our laws.” —Michael Eric Dyson, New York Times bestselling author of Tears We Cannot Stop
In Bad Law, the New York Times bestselling author of Allow Me To A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution reimagines what our legal system, and society at large, could look like if we could move past legislation plagued by racism, misogyny, and corruption. Through accessible yet detailed prose and trenchant wit, Mystal argues that these egregiously awful laws—his “Bill of Wrongs”—continue to cause systematic and individual harm and should be repealed completely.
By exposing the flawed foundations of the rules we live by, and through biting humor and insight, Bad Law offers a crisp, pertinent take
abortion and the Hyde Amendment, and the role federal funding, or lack thereof, has played in depriving women of necessary health and reproductive care
immigration and illegal reentry, and the illusions that have been sold to us regarding immigration policy, reform, and whiteness at large
voter registration laws, and how the right to vote has become a moral issue, and ironically, antidemocratic
gun control and the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, and the extreme yet obvious dangers of granting immunity to gun manufacturers
But, as the man Samantha Bee calls “irrepressible and righteously indignant” and Matt Levine of Bloomberg Opinion calls “the funniest lawyer in America,” points out, these laws do not come to us from on high; we write them, and we can and should unwrite them. In a fierce, funny, and wholly original takedown spanning all the hot-button topics in the country today, one of our most brilliant legal thinkers points the way to a saner tomorrow.
“Mystal is a grassroots legal superhero, and his superpower is the ability to explain to the masses in clear language the all-too-human forces at play behind the making of our laws.” —Michael Eric Dyson, New York Times bestselling author of Tears We Cannot Stop
In Bad Law, the New York Times bestselling author of Allow Me To A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution reimagines what our legal system, and society at large, could look like if we could move past legislation plagued by racism, misogyny, and corruption. Through accessible yet detailed prose and trenchant wit, Mystal argues that these egregiously awful laws—his “Bill of Wrongs”—continue to cause systematic and individual harm and should be repealed completely.
By exposing the flawed foundations of the rules we live by, and through biting humor and insight, Bad Law offers a crisp, pertinent take
abortion and the Hyde Amendment, and the role federal funding, or lack thereof, has played in depriving women of necessary health and reproductive care
immigration and illegal reentry, and the illusions that have been sold to us regarding immigration policy, reform, and whiteness at large
voter registration laws, and how the right to vote has become a moral issue, and ironically, antidemocratic
gun control and the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, and the extreme yet obvious dangers of granting immunity to gun manufacturers
But, as the man Samantha Bee calls “irrepressible and righteously indignant” and Matt Levine of Bloomberg Opinion calls “the funniest lawyer in America,” points out, these laws do not come to us from on high; we write them, and we can and should unwrite them. In a fierce, funny, and wholly original takedown spanning all the hot-button topics in the country today, one of our most brilliant legal thinkers points the way to a saner tomorrow.
253 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 25, 2025
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3248 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 186 reviews
February 10, 2025
I just got an ARC of this and I am beside myself. Allow Me to Retort was one of the best books I've ever read about the US Constitution.
ETA, now that I've finished the book --
The Thing About Elie Mystal is that he has the biggest pottymouth and the wickedest sense of humor of any legal commentator anywhere in the multiverse. He's also brilliant. Like "Allow Me to Retort," "Bad Law" skewers a legal system that, instead of working to protect us, perpetuates white supremacism, male supremacism, heteronormativity, transphobia, etc. etc. (By the way, "us" in that sentence naturally includes quite a lot of people who don't seem to know it.)
I could have predicted some of Mystal's targets: "Don't Say Gay" laws; abortion bans; "stand your ground" laws and the Second Amendment. Others hadn't occurred to me but seemed obvious once he pointed them out -- voter registration, for instance. Mystal describes how registration requirements effectively disenfranchise many people and says, flatly, "If you live somewhere, you should have a say in how you are governed, regardless of where you were born or how much money you have." (He doesn't say "and regardless of citizenship," but I'm pretty sure he would if you asked him.)
Felony murder! I've been to law school and I like to conceive of myself as someone sensitive to the oppressive qualities of the US criminal "justice" system, but had I ever thought through the implications of felony murder statutes, especially as combined with three-strikes sentencing requirements? Quick explanation: basically, if you're involved in a felony and someone gets killed in the course of the felony, you're guilty of murder even if you didn't have a weapon and had nothing to do with the actual killing.
What do you know, it turns out that felony murder statutes penalize victims of domestic violence (because they may be coerced into participation, for example driving a getaway car) and also help underpin the cops' shoot-'em-up license (say you're fleeing the cops and they get a-shooting and kill a bystander, you've committed felony murder; you can see how this doesn't encourage cops to keep their weapons holstered).
I highlighted dozens and dozens of passages in "Bad Law" -- pithy ones, funny ones, sharp-tongued ones, and so many insults.
Mystal suggests ways in which terrible laws can be changed; whether any of those means will work under present circumstances seems like a long shot. Something to strive for, or at least a pleasant fantasy. It's hard to call this lack a failure or a defect in the book; for one thing, he wrote it before the 2024 election, thus at a time when we could still hope to improve our country rather than just desperately try to salvage what we can of it.
May the Flying Spaghetti Monster bless and keep this man. Please read his book.
Thanks to Edelweiss and the New Press for the ARC.
ETA, now that I've finished the book --
The Thing About Elie Mystal is that he has the biggest pottymouth and the wickedest sense of humor of any legal commentator anywhere in the multiverse. He's also brilliant. Like "Allow Me to Retort," "Bad Law" skewers a legal system that, instead of working to protect us, perpetuates white supremacism, male supremacism, heteronormativity, transphobia, etc. etc. (By the way, "us" in that sentence naturally includes quite a lot of people who don't seem to know it.)
I could have predicted some of Mystal's targets: "Don't Say Gay" laws; abortion bans; "stand your ground" laws and the Second Amendment. Others hadn't occurred to me but seemed obvious once he pointed them out -- voter registration, for instance. Mystal describes how registration requirements effectively disenfranchise many people and says, flatly, "If you live somewhere, you should have a say in how you are governed, regardless of where you were born or how much money you have." (He doesn't say "and regardless of citizenship," but I'm pretty sure he would if you asked him.)
The government can determine who is eligible to vote based on lists it already has, including the census. All voters who are eligible that the government knows about are registered. All those who are eligible that the government doesn’t know about are presumptively registered, unless information is produced that they are not eligible. The end. That’s how it’s done in most of the rest of the world.That last is kind of the kicker for me -- I wonder how many people in one country are aware of how voting is handled in other countries. (I do assume that "voting" in places like Russia, China, and Hungary is not meaningful as Mystal and I would like voting to be.)
Felony murder! I've been to law school and I like to conceive of myself as someone sensitive to the oppressive qualities of the US criminal "justice" system, but had I ever thought through the implications of felony murder statutes, especially as combined with three-strikes sentencing requirements? Quick explanation: basically, if you're involved in a felony and someone gets killed in the course of the felony, you're guilty of murder even if you didn't have a weapon and had nothing to do with the actual killing.
What do you know, it turns out that felony murder statutes penalize victims of domestic violence (because they may be coerced into participation, for example driving a getaway car) and also help underpin the cops' shoot-'em-up license (say you're fleeing the cops and they get a-shooting and kill a bystander, you've committed felony murder; you can see how this doesn't encourage cops to keep their weapons holstered).
I highlighted dozens and dozens of passages in "Bad Law" -- pithy ones, funny ones, sharp-tongued ones, and so many insults.
Jonathan Mitchell, a Republican fetus whisperer
Wherever neoliberals go, the story always stays the same: labor gets hollowed out, monopolies emerge, service gets worse, and consumer protections disappear.
... entire swaths of Americans consider the Constitution to be made up of the Second Amendment plus a whole bunch of “woke,” “liberal” sissy-ass suggestions.
The most “woke” elementary school in the world (and the school my kids go to would be in the running for such an honorific) is not sensitizing kids to LGBTQ issues by teaching math through the operation of adding partners with a double-ended dildo.
Mystal suggests ways in which terrible laws can be changed; whether any of those means will work under present circumstances seems like a long shot. Something to strive for, or at least a pleasant fantasy. It's hard to call this lack a failure or a defect in the book; for one thing, he wrote it before the 2024 election, thus at a time when we could still hope to improve our country rather than just desperately try to salvage what we can of it.
May the Flying Spaghetti Monster bless and keep this man. Please read his book.
Thanks to Edelweiss and the New Press for the ARC.
February 20, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and The New Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
In Bad Law, Mystal critiques the state of America’s democracy (if you can call it that) and explores the important hot topics of immigration, voting rights, abortion, neoliberalism, the criminal justice system and religious freedom, among others. In doing so, he highlights which laws have enabled the white male ruling class to turn the US government into a tool for subjugation and reflection of archaic Christian ideology.
Being an Australian who is not well versed in US laws did not prevent me from being fully involved in this book. Mystal uses accessible and clear language to explain the laws and concepts and then critiques them with wickedly irreverent humour that had me genuinely laughing out loud at times.
As with any work of critical nonfiction, the book is infused with the author’s biases. However, it was incredibly refreshing that Mystal did not feign neutrality and was upfront about how his experience and identity informed his opinions. This allowed for a transparent and informed reading experience that I wish was more common in this genre.
The only major downfall about this book is that the people who need to read it most are unlikely to ever pick it up.
In Bad Law, Mystal critiques the state of America’s democracy (if you can call it that) and explores the important hot topics of immigration, voting rights, abortion, neoliberalism, the criminal justice system and religious freedom, among others. In doing so, he highlights which laws have enabled the white male ruling class to turn the US government into a tool for subjugation and reflection of archaic Christian ideology.
Being an Australian who is not well versed in US laws did not prevent me from being fully involved in this book. Mystal uses accessible and clear language to explain the laws and concepts and then critiques them with wickedly irreverent humour that had me genuinely laughing out loud at times.
As with any work of critical nonfiction, the book is infused with the author’s biases. However, it was incredibly refreshing that Mystal did not feign neutrality and was upfront about how his experience and identity informed his opinions. This allowed for a transparent and informed reading experience that I wish was more common in this genre.
The only major downfall about this book is that the people who need to read it most are unlikely to ever pick it up.
December 31, 2024
I was given this as an ARC in order for my feedback from NetGalley. The feedback is my own.
I really enjoyed this book. As an AP Government teacher with an undergraduate degree in Political Science it was right up my alley. It read very quickly with just enough political information to not bore the average reader but enough to allow me to laugh out loud at certain points. I would love to recommend this book to all readers but I fear this book won’t make it into the hands of the people that need it the most. The author does not hold back on his opinions, which I appreciate. He attacks both sides of the aisle in order to make his points about bad laws.
This book will sit with me for a while and I truly hope those in power will take note and begin the process for change. Our country will never advance if we do not allow for change. Our constitution was not meant to be an unchanging document, for it to only change 17 times since its ratification is unheard of for many democratic governments around the globe.
This was the first book I read from this author but I am immediately going to purchase his other book. The honesty that he provides in his work is much needed and I would highly recommend reading.
I really enjoyed this book. As an AP Government teacher with an undergraduate degree in Political Science it was right up my alley. It read very quickly with just enough political information to not bore the average reader but enough to allow me to laugh out loud at certain points. I would love to recommend this book to all readers but I fear this book won’t make it into the hands of the people that need it the most. The author does not hold back on his opinions, which I appreciate. He attacks both sides of the aisle in order to make his points about bad laws.
This book will sit with me for a while and I truly hope those in power will take note and begin the process for change. Our country will never advance if we do not allow for change. Our constitution was not meant to be an unchanging document, for it to only change 17 times since its ratification is unheard of for many democratic governments around the globe.
This was the first book I read from this author but I am immediately going to purchase his other book. The honesty that he provides in his work is much needed and I would highly recommend reading.
January 7, 2025
“The people who pass bad laws need us to be uninformed. The ignorance of the electorate is their greatest weapon. Knowledge is their kryptonite.”
Elie Mystal is not trying to convince the other side of anything at all in this book about the most harmful laws in the United States and how we can repeal them. This book isn’t for the people who voted for Trump and his minions, because these very laws were put in place intentionally by them and their sympathizers to do exactly what they set forth to do. The intent of Elie’s book is to call these laws out, to inform those of us who actually want a real representative democracy for the first time since the birth of the nation, and to give us a road map for what needs to be done to accomplish it.
I am one of those people who reads stacks and stacks of political science and history books for fun, but I learned so much from this book that I thought I was going to break my KIndle highlighting as much as I did. The tone is conversational and irreverent, never condescending or unapproachable, and very frequently righteously indignant and raucously profane. If you don’t like F-bombs, this book won’t be for you. That’s too bad, though, because the amount of knowledge contained in these pages should be required for all voters everywhere.
On the eve of the anniversary of January 6th, imagine my surprise when I read the words, “How then does the Right arise in the Majority to govern the Minority against their will?” John Adams believed that if the minorities (back then the poor and the slaves and women) ignored their “obligation to obey,” that the “powerful white men simply won’t submit to the authority of the government if that government is based on the majority rule of all the people in the country or in a state. He’s saying, straight out, that wealthy whites will reject democracy if democracy does not produce the outcomes desired by the rich and powerful.” This passage stopped me in my tracks. As the “broligarchy” is about to take over the country, the prescience of this book stands supreme. It’s important, it’s gutting, and it’s fiercely defiant. I couldn’t put it down and will be ordering his previous book, “Allow Me to Retort,” immediately.
Thank you, Net Galley, for this Advance Reader Copy.
Elie Mystal is not trying to convince the other side of anything at all in this book about the most harmful laws in the United States and how we can repeal them. This book isn’t for the people who voted for Trump and his minions, because these very laws were put in place intentionally by them and their sympathizers to do exactly what they set forth to do. The intent of Elie’s book is to call these laws out, to inform those of us who actually want a real representative democracy for the first time since the birth of the nation, and to give us a road map for what needs to be done to accomplish it.
I am one of those people who reads stacks and stacks of political science and history books for fun, but I learned so much from this book that I thought I was going to break my KIndle highlighting as much as I did. The tone is conversational and irreverent, never condescending or unapproachable, and very frequently righteously indignant and raucously profane. If you don’t like F-bombs, this book won’t be for you. That’s too bad, though, because the amount of knowledge contained in these pages should be required for all voters everywhere.
On the eve of the anniversary of January 6th, imagine my surprise when I read the words, “How then does the Right arise in the Majority to govern the Minority against their will?” John Adams believed that if the minorities (back then the poor and the slaves and women) ignored their “obligation to obey,” that the “powerful white men simply won’t submit to the authority of the government if that government is based on the majority rule of all the people in the country or in a state. He’s saying, straight out, that wealthy whites will reject democracy if democracy does not produce the outcomes desired by the rich and powerful.” This passage stopped me in my tracks. As the “broligarchy” is about to take over the country, the prescience of this book stands supreme. It’s important, it’s gutting, and it’s fiercely defiant. I couldn’t put it down and will be ordering his previous book, “Allow Me to Retort,” immediately.
Thank you, Net Galley, for this Advance Reader Copy.
April 5, 2025
This book showed up on my doorstep this past week. I thought hmmmmm... who could have sent me this book? There was nothing attached saying who it was from. I am 99% sure it was my father-in-law who loves to send me books like this. I am so glad he sent this one to me because this was fantastic. It was riveting. I read it in a day and a half.
It was super informative but was also hilarious. Everyone really should read this! It honestly should be required reading. It sadly won't be for reasons that are clearly outlined in the book. This is a call to action to start questioning some very basic laws of this country and why and how they came into being. It is also a call to start asking the people you vote for to also question these laws and then change them. I learned a lot reading this, and also was very entertained while doing it.
5 stars and highest recommendation.
It was super informative but was also hilarious. Everyone really should read this! It honestly should be required reading. It sadly won't be for reasons that are clearly outlined in the book. This is a call to action to start questioning some very basic laws of this country and why and how they came into being. It is also a call to start asking the people you vote for to also question these laws and then change them. I learned a lot reading this, and also was very entertained while doing it.
5 stars and highest recommendation.
May 25, 2025
As always, Elie Mystal is freaking brilliant. And delightfully profane. And so funny.
——————————————————————————-
“Just to be clear, if I am murdered one day, please tell my children that I did not give one flying fuck about the "status" of the person who murdered me. I did not care if the person who killed me was an "illegal" immigrant, a permanent resident, or an involuntarily celibate white teenager who got super pissed because I wrecked his lil' white supremacist ass in an online video game. What I will have cared about was that they murdered me, and I'd like for the law to hold them accountable for that. If you really want to do something nice for my ghostly ass, take away the motherfucker’s guns; I don’t give a shit about their green card.”
“Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is not drawn from futurism but from basic American history. She’s simply written about what the world will look like if white men win. White men have always been fairly forthright about what they intend to do if nobody stops them.”
“Lots of aspects of the immigration system need to be reformed, but throwing people in jail for the crime of existing is not one of them. That just needs to be stopped.”
“People who hope for a better life for themselves and especially for their children will brave all odds to get here, so long as "here" represents their best chance at economic, political, or religious freedom. They will scale walls and ford moats. They will navigate around barbed wire and land mines. They will contend with border patrol agents, state troopers, and white people with nothing better to do than hop in their Ford F-150s and go hunting for human prey. They will try, and they will keep trying, because no matter how brutal and inhumane you make the consequences of capture, the possibility of success outweighs those costs.”
“To stop immigrants from coming, you’d have to make America so shitty that nobody wants to live here, including the people who are born here. Republicans and tr*mp are actively trying to make that happen, I know, but the Republican love for rapacious capitalism defeats their own purpose.”
“The airline industry is proof positive of the axiom ‘it can always get worse.’”
“If you tell a rich fuck that there is an agency head who is responsible for making up the rules that govern the rich fuck's business, the first thing that rich fuck is gonna do is try to buy, bribe, or influence that agency head.”
“When white people get hooked on something, this country treats them as addicts. When Black people get hooked on something, this country treats them as criminals.”
“Remember, the ACCA was sold as a way to combat violent crimes. Take a look at the gun violence we have all around us in this shooting gallery of a country and tell me if the ACCA is working.”
“America is the most incarcerated country in the world because American voters favor incarceration over any other strategy and can’t be bothered to read enough to learn why they are wrong.”
“Felony murder catches people who were just there, committing some other crime. They were just around, participating in a normal, non-murder-y felony.”
“Folks, I am what can be described as an "obese man." Any number of things could kill me: from a two-for-one meal deal to a steep flight of stairs. But if I'm walking down the street and somebody pops out from behind a corner and yells "boo," and I keel over and die from too much panic and queso dip, my death is not a murder. The prankster did not kill me. Death is not a foreseeable consequence from being frightened, I don't care how fat you are.”
“I wish I could relabel the duty to retreat as something else— perhaps the "duty to explore all options" or the "duty to live and let live" —something that wouldn't make American men's penises feel sad when it's invoked.”
“Our country is soaked in the blood of our own children, not because of our national temperament or our collective "freedoms," but because of our stupid fucking choices made at the point of the proverbial gun that is the Second Amendment.”
“Democrats don't robustly protect abortion rights, even when they have power, for many reasons. A huge one is that the Democratic Party, for all of its charms, at least compared with the other guys, is still predominately run by old men. Men who are uncomfortable even saying the word "abortion," just as they are uncomfortable saying words like "vagina" and "menstruation" and "equal pay for equal work."”
“I do not call myself “pro-choice.” I am against “forced birth.”
“It is barbaric to force a person who doesn't proactively want to do it to go through the gestation and birthing process. It is unconscionable to force a person who didn't want to get pregnant in the first place or whose pregnancy is the result of a violent crime to do this. No government should have the authority to do that; no government should even be able to muster the gall to ask. The argument that getting pregnant allows the government to commandeer a person's internal organs is simply beyond the scope of just law. Any state that tries should be resisted to the last.”
“One thing I’ve learned about Republicans is that they often win, and they can always make things worse.”
“I promise you that when Democrats have enough power to restore abortion rights, some Democrats will be eager to maintain the Hyde Amendment in order to “bring the country together.” I’m telling you that these Democrats and their bullshit religiosity must be defeated as well.”
“Providing an environment where children-ALL children—are happy, safe, and free to experience the world on their own terms is an unqualified good. Indeed, this is what we should want for our kids: treating preassigned labels with skepticism, creating the intellectual space for children to become self-aware, having the confidence to be who we are in this world. All of that is the point of school and should be the point of a loving society.”
“First of all, people really need to stop conflating sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and fucking into the same category. Sex is your bits and pieces, gender is how the world perceives your bits and pieces, orientation is where you'd like to put your bits and pieces, and fucking is the procedural interaction of your bits with someone else's pieces. They are four different things.”
“The idea that these kinds of stories and classroom discussions are "inappropriate" for little kids makes no sense if you understand that LGBTQ people are normal members of society with whom kids interact every day, and if you understand that gender, gender roles, identity, and social expectations are things kids are thinking about as they learn about themselves and the world. This stuff comes up in school because it comes up in their little brains, and you really have to be a Jupiter-class jerk-off to write a law prohibiting kids from asking questions and having discussions.”
“Who can know what conversation about LGBTQ issues Florida bureaucrats think are age-appropriate for tweens and teens, but I'll bet all the money in my pocket that those conversations will involve more fire and brimstone than rainbows.”
“Suffice it to say that no panel of nine self-proclaimed law wizards has yet come up with a satisfactory answer. Again, we are a sexually repressed culture that manages to think of a woman breastfeeding her child as “vulgar” but a man openly carrying a phallic arsenal of weapons as “freedom loving.””
“It’s pretty simple: either create an environment where your kid feels like they can talk to you about their deep, emotional thoughts, or shut the fuck up. Be thankful they feel comfortable talking to somebody and try to do better next time.”
“Every single national law in this country was passed by a Christian legislature, signed by a Christian president, and reviewed by a Christian court. If this place doesn't feel like a Christian theocracy to you, it's probably because you're Christian.”
“Women and the LGBTQ community bear the brunt of what Christians call the free exercise of their religion. I'm aware that many, if not most, organized religions discriminate against women and LGBTQ people in some way, but Christians are the ones running this joint, so Christians are the ones I'm focusing on.”
“The same goddamn sociopaths who say their kids can't be exposed to lessons about sexual orientation or gender fluidity say that your kids can be exposed to COVID-19 or measles or polio or whooping cough or whatever else their unvaccinated urchins bring back into this world.”
“Christians are not being fed to the lions. They ARE the lions. The RFRA helps them hunt. It should be repealed.”
——————————————————————————-
“Just to be clear, if I am murdered one day, please tell my children that I did not give one flying fuck about the "status" of the person who murdered me. I did not care if the person who killed me was an "illegal" immigrant, a permanent resident, or an involuntarily celibate white teenager who got super pissed because I wrecked his lil' white supremacist ass in an online video game. What I will have cared about was that they murdered me, and I'd like for the law to hold them accountable for that. If you really want to do something nice for my ghostly ass, take away the motherfucker’s guns; I don’t give a shit about their green card.”
“Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is not drawn from futurism but from basic American history. She’s simply written about what the world will look like if white men win. White men have always been fairly forthright about what they intend to do if nobody stops them.”
“Lots of aspects of the immigration system need to be reformed, but throwing people in jail for the crime of existing is not one of them. That just needs to be stopped.”
“People who hope for a better life for themselves and especially for their children will brave all odds to get here, so long as "here" represents their best chance at economic, political, or religious freedom. They will scale walls and ford moats. They will navigate around barbed wire and land mines. They will contend with border patrol agents, state troopers, and white people with nothing better to do than hop in their Ford F-150s and go hunting for human prey. They will try, and they will keep trying, because no matter how brutal and inhumane you make the consequences of capture, the possibility of success outweighs those costs.”
“To stop immigrants from coming, you’d have to make America so shitty that nobody wants to live here, including the people who are born here. Republicans and tr*mp are actively trying to make that happen, I know, but the Republican love for rapacious capitalism defeats their own purpose.”
“The airline industry is proof positive of the axiom ‘it can always get worse.’”
“If you tell a rich fuck that there is an agency head who is responsible for making up the rules that govern the rich fuck's business, the first thing that rich fuck is gonna do is try to buy, bribe, or influence that agency head.”
“When white people get hooked on something, this country treats them as addicts. When Black people get hooked on something, this country treats them as criminals.”
“Remember, the ACCA was sold as a way to combat violent crimes. Take a look at the gun violence we have all around us in this shooting gallery of a country and tell me if the ACCA is working.”
“America is the most incarcerated country in the world because American voters favor incarceration over any other strategy and can’t be bothered to read enough to learn why they are wrong.”
“Felony murder catches people who were just there, committing some other crime. They were just around, participating in a normal, non-murder-y felony.”
“Folks, I am what can be described as an "obese man." Any number of things could kill me: from a two-for-one meal deal to a steep flight of stairs. But if I'm walking down the street and somebody pops out from behind a corner and yells "boo," and I keel over and die from too much panic and queso dip, my death is not a murder. The prankster did not kill me. Death is not a foreseeable consequence from being frightened, I don't care how fat you are.”
“I wish I could relabel the duty to retreat as something else— perhaps the "duty to explore all options" or the "duty to live and let live" —something that wouldn't make American men's penises feel sad when it's invoked.”
“Our country is soaked in the blood of our own children, not because of our national temperament or our collective "freedoms," but because of our stupid fucking choices made at the point of the proverbial gun that is the Second Amendment.”
“Democrats don't robustly protect abortion rights, even when they have power, for many reasons. A huge one is that the Democratic Party, for all of its charms, at least compared with the other guys, is still predominately run by old men. Men who are uncomfortable even saying the word "abortion," just as they are uncomfortable saying words like "vagina" and "menstruation" and "equal pay for equal work."”
“I do not call myself “pro-choice.” I am against “forced birth.”
“It is barbaric to force a person who doesn't proactively want to do it to go through the gestation and birthing process. It is unconscionable to force a person who didn't want to get pregnant in the first place or whose pregnancy is the result of a violent crime to do this. No government should have the authority to do that; no government should even be able to muster the gall to ask. The argument that getting pregnant allows the government to commandeer a person's internal organs is simply beyond the scope of just law. Any state that tries should be resisted to the last.”
“One thing I’ve learned about Republicans is that they often win, and they can always make things worse.”
“I promise you that when Democrats have enough power to restore abortion rights, some Democrats will be eager to maintain the Hyde Amendment in order to “bring the country together.” I’m telling you that these Democrats and their bullshit religiosity must be defeated as well.”
“Providing an environment where children-ALL children—are happy, safe, and free to experience the world on their own terms is an unqualified good. Indeed, this is what we should want for our kids: treating preassigned labels with skepticism, creating the intellectual space for children to become self-aware, having the confidence to be who we are in this world. All of that is the point of school and should be the point of a loving society.”
“First of all, people really need to stop conflating sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and fucking into the same category. Sex is your bits and pieces, gender is how the world perceives your bits and pieces, orientation is where you'd like to put your bits and pieces, and fucking is the procedural interaction of your bits with someone else's pieces. They are four different things.”
“The idea that these kinds of stories and classroom discussions are "inappropriate" for little kids makes no sense if you understand that LGBTQ people are normal members of society with whom kids interact every day, and if you understand that gender, gender roles, identity, and social expectations are things kids are thinking about as they learn about themselves and the world. This stuff comes up in school because it comes up in their little brains, and you really have to be a Jupiter-class jerk-off to write a law prohibiting kids from asking questions and having discussions.”
“Who can know what conversation about LGBTQ issues Florida bureaucrats think are age-appropriate for tweens and teens, but I'll bet all the money in my pocket that those conversations will involve more fire and brimstone than rainbows.”
“Suffice it to say that no panel of nine self-proclaimed law wizards has yet come up with a satisfactory answer. Again, we are a sexually repressed culture that manages to think of a woman breastfeeding her child as “vulgar” but a man openly carrying a phallic arsenal of weapons as “freedom loving.””
“It’s pretty simple: either create an environment where your kid feels like they can talk to you about their deep, emotional thoughts, or shut the fuck up. Be thankful they feel comfortable talking to somebody and try to do better next time.”
“Every single national law in this country was passed by a Christian legislature, signed by a Christian president, and reviewed by a Christian court. If this place doesn't feel like a Christian theocracy to you, it's probably because you're Christian.”
“Women and the LGBTQ community bear the brunt of what Christians call the free exercise of their religion. I'm aware that many, if not most, organized religions discriminate against women and LGBTQ people in some way, but Christians are the ones running this joint, so Christians are the ones I'm focusing on.”
“The same goddamn sociopaths who say their kids can't be exposed to lessons about sexual orientation or gender fluidity say that your kids can be exposed to COVID-19 or measles or polio or whooping cough or whatever else their unvaccinated urchins bring back into this world.”
“Christians are not being fed to the lions. They ARE the lions. The RFRA helps them hunt. It should be repealed.”
April 2, 2025
Mystal is funny and fun to read, erudite and thoughtful, and I definitely learned some things - mostly just how bad these laws really are. But by his own assertion, this is not a book designed to change the minds of folks who actually like these laws, and so it ends up feeling like a funny cathartic rant rather than something important. I'd still recommend it, but can't quite muster 4 stars.
June 9, 2025
Contender for a favorite of the year. But that’s understandable because Elie Mystal is knowledgeable and hilarious and can dissect the racist connotations of the American constitution and various laws across the country like nobody’s business.
If his first book “Allow Me to Retort” was about the constitution, this book is about some of the most horrible state or federal laws in the country which do nothing but discriminate against minorities, make lives harder for marginalized communities and give more money and power to corporations. While I knew about some of them, it was still very interesting (and awful) to get to know in detail about the Hyde amendment which places unnecessary burden on poor women who need abortions, which combined with the global gag rule is ruining lives internationally; the PLCAA which makes it impossible to sue gun manufacturers who liberally market mass murder weapons; and the law which disregulated and privatized air travel which has led to the current airline industry which offers nothing good to the consumers. The discriminatory laws regarding incarceration, lgbtq rights and the religious right’s never ending war on secular democracy are also prominent features in the book.
If you are a civic minded resident of the US - citizen or immigrant - you should read this book. It will educate you and make you guffaw and wallow in despair all the same time, but it’s definitely worth it.
If his first book “Allow Me to Retort” was about the constitution, this book is about some of the most horrible state or federal laws in the country which do nothing but discriminate against minorities, make lives harder for marginalized communities and give more money and power to corporations. While I knew about some of them, it was still very interesting (and awful) to get to know in detail about the Hyde amendment which places unnecessary burden on poor women who need abortions, which combined with the global gag rule is ruining lives internationally; the PLCAA which makes it impossible to sue gun manufacturers who liberally market mass murder weapons; and the law which disregulated and privatized air travel which has led to the current airline industry which offers nothing good to the consumers. The discriminatory laws regarding incarceration, lgbtq rights and the religious right’s never ending war on secular democracy are also prominent features in the book.
If you are a civic minded resident of the US - citizen or immigrant - you should read this book. It will educate you and make you guffaw and wallow in despair all the same time, but it’s definitely worth it.
October 19, 2025
I wish I had this book decades ago, and frankly, it is must reading for anyone who really wants to comprehend just how undemocratic our society is, and has been for at least a century, if not more. Mystal pulls no punches, suffers no fools, calls a ... well, maybe I won't use that cliche! Or rather let's revise: he calls a white man a white man, and wow, there are a lot of them, making bad laws, seemingly deliberately.
March 28, 2025
I heard an interview with the author. I thought this would be an intellectual argument about bad laws. It was a rant. Maybe because I bought the audio audiobook, which was more like a performance than a read. All this to say, I did not find value in this. I asked for a refund because I didn't finish.
February 9, 2025
4.75/5 rounded up - Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. I was intrigued by this book frankly because of the author's twitter account, in which he is always coming in with smart, thoughtful, biting, and hilarious takes on social justice and our political system. I was hoping this book would have all of that clear-cutting logic combined with wit and humor and boy did it deliver. The introduction is one of the best introductions that I've ever read, because it gives us a succinct portrait of who the author is, the exact perspective he is coming from when writing this, and who his audience is:
"If you are new here, hello. My name is Elie Mystal. I'm no longer a lawyer, but I play one on TV. I'm also a columnist and author. I talk and write because I'm not good at marching and fighting. I approach law from the perspective of activism and advocacy, which is an intellectually acceptable way to say I'm biased as fuck."..."Obviously, I think my biases are righteous and other people's biases are misguided, but its important to understand when reading me that I'm not trying to convince other people. You can read many books that try to appeal and persuade people on 'both sides' of an issue, but that is not my mission."
So if you read the introduction and its not for you, I would not read further. In fact if you read the table of contents and feel yourself getting defensive, this book is not for you. Chapter titles include but are not limited to "Why isn't everyone registered to vote?...Why do we incarcerate so many people?...Why do we give White guys a license to kill Black people?...How did they fit the federal budget inside people's wombs?...Why can't we say gay?". However, if these chapters address issues that you think about a lot, that cause you a great deal of pain, that you spend much of your time worrying about and feel helpless to change, then I think you will enjoy this book immensely. Because each chapter outlines a single law - what it actually says, how it came to be, the historical context and motivations for its creation, the consequences resulting from it, and how the singular action of repealing it would cause a great deal of structural change. In a system that feels so impossibly complicated and overbearing, it is refreshing and motivating to understand how pushing for a single action on a single issue in the form of a repeal can cause the change we are hoping for. Not to say that repealing laws is easy, the author explains exactly why and how it is so difficult in each case, but it is a clear, possible path, that cuts through the chaos and helplessness (at least in my mind).
While fully explaining his bias, the author sets up the no-nonsense tone of the book by also not leaving anyone safe. He is on HIS side, which doesn't mean one political party is always good. Everyone can be at fault. There is no objective ultimate truth or goodness, only the rules that imperfect people have set up. Again this is set up immediately in the introduction:
"The law is not a set of objective rules. It's an amalgam of our subjective choices....Our choices have ben shitty. That's because, for the most part, 'we' do not get to participate in the choosing of our laws. Not all of us, not in this country. America is a place where we specifically prohibited Black people and women from participating in the decisions about which laws we'd have for nearly two hundred years."
I also cannot emphasize enough how much I learned from this book about just basic civics and legal terms. Its a little embarrassing how much I didn't know, and how these definitions and details are absolutely crucial to how these laws are set up and carried out. For example, he discusses in the second chapter that most of U.S. Immigration law falls under civil law, that deportation is a civil penalty, and because it is under civil law, violations leading to deportation do not receive the same legal protections we think of being assumed in criminal law such as due process and access to a lawyer. He then goes on to explain that some immigration offenses ARE criminal violations, illegal entry and illegal reentry, and that those are very different things. In chapter 4 he uses airline regulation to discuss the concept of neoliberalism and why it appealed to so many democratic leaning folks at the time but often ended up serving a conservative agenda. Another example is in chapter 6 where he discusses the felony murder law and how the way that it is worded and applied allows for a felony murder charge when there is no murderous intent (instead of manslaughter which is the usual charge when someone dies but there was no intent). This is maybe revealing more about my ignorance than telling you about the book, but hopefully its giving you some sense of the kind of information discussed.
The epilogue again is so well-crafted and mirrors the introduction and the main thesis of the book: "Every law in this book can be repealed by an act of Congress or an act of state legislatures. Every bad law can be replaced by a good one. Nothing is written in stone. Our world is not inevitable."
And then he just hits with an absolute stunner out of nowhere "The United States has the least representative democracy among the wealthy nations of the world. Thats not a vibe, its a fact. Each member of the U.S. House of Representatives (our most local member of the national government) represents on average 760,000 people. The next least representative government after us is Japan, where each proportionally representative member of the Japanese Shugiin (Japan's equivalent of our lower house) is responsible for an average of 270,000 people." And then goes on to explain much more about that.
So yes I found it super eye-opening, engaging, and funny. If you are more versed in legalese this may be basic but I think the tone and quips will still make it entertaining. The only negative thing I have to say is that it could have been a bit longer and more fleshed out. It went really fast through some of the concepts in certain chapters and I'm having a hard time remembering them because I don't think I fully understood in the first place. That's not really the book's fault of course. Anyway, I will be definitely going back to read the author's first book and look forward to any future works!
"If you are new here, hello. My name is Elie Mystal. I'm no longer a lawyer, but I play one on TV. I'm also a columnist and author. I talk and write because I'm not good at marching and fighting. I approach law from the perspective of activism and advocacy, which is an intellectually acceptable way to say I'm biased as fuck."..."Obviously, I think my biases are righteous and other people's biases are misguided, but its important to understand when reading me that I'm not trying to convince other people. You can read many books that try to appeal and persuade people on 'both sides' of an issue, but that is not my mission."
So if you read the introduction and its not for you, I would not read further. In fact if you read the table of contents and feel yourself getting defensive, this book is not for you. Chapter titles include but are not limited to "Why isn't everyone registered to vote?...Why do we incarcerate so many people?...Why do we give White guys a license to kill Black people?...How did they fit the federal budget inside people's wombs?...Why can't we say gay?". However, if these chapters address issues that you think about a lot, that cause you a great deal of pain, that you spend much of your time worrying about and feel helpless to change, then I think you will enjoy this book immensely. Because each chapter outlines a single law - what it actually says, how it came to be, the historical context and motivations for its creation, the consequences resulting from it, and how the singular action of repealing it would cause a great deal of structural change. In a system that feels so impossibly complicated and overbearing, it is refreshing and motivating to understand how pushing for a single action on a single issue in the form of a repeal can cause the change we are hoping for. Not to say that repealing laws is easy, the author explains exactly why and how it is so difficult in each case, but it is a clear, possible path, that cuts through the chaos and helplessness (at least in my mind).
While fully explaining his bias, the author sets up the no-nonsense tone of the book by also not leaving anyone safe. He is on HIS side, which doesn't mean one political party is always good. Everyone can be at fault. There is no objective ultimate truth or goodness, only the rules that imperfect people have set up. Again this is set up immediately in the introduction:
"The law is not a set of objective rules. It's an amalgam of our subjective choices....Our choices have ben shitty. That's because, for the most part, 'we' do not get to participate in the choosing of our laws. Not all of us, not in this country. America is a place where we specifically prohibited Black people and women from participating in the decisions about which laws we'd have for nearly two hundred years."
I also cannot emphasize enough how much I learned from this book about just basic civics and legal terms. Its a little embarrassing how much I didn't know, and how these definitions and details are absolutely crucial to how these laws are set up and carried out. For example, he discusses in the second chapter that most of U.S. Immigration law falls under civil law, that deportation is a civil penalty, and because it is under civil law, violations leading to deportation do not receive the same legal protections we think of being assumed in criminal law such as due process and access to a lawyer. He then goes on to explain that some immigration offenses ARE criminal violations, illegal entry and illegal reentry, and that those are very different things. In chapter 4 he uses airline regulation to discuss the concept of neoliberalism and why it appealed to so many democratic leaning folks at the time but often ended up serving a conservative agenda. Another example is in chapter 6 where he discusses the felony murder law and how the way that it is worded and applied allows for a felony murder charge when there is no murderous intent (instead of manslaughter which is the usual charge when someone dies but there was no intent). This is maybe revealing more about my ignorance than telling you about the book, but hopefully its giving you some sense of the kind of information discussed.
The epilogue again is so well-crafted and mirrors the introduction and the main thesis of the book: "Every law in this book can be repealed by an act of Congress or an act of state legislatures. Every bad law can be replaced by a good one. Nothing is written in stone. Our world is not inevitable."
And then he just hits with an absolute stunner out of nowhere "The United States has the least representative democracy among the wealthy nations of the world. Thats not a vibe, its a fact. Each member of the U.S. House of Representatives (our most local member of the national government) represents on average 760,000 people. The next least representative government after us is Japan, where each proportionally representative member of the Japanese Shugiin (Japan's equivalent of our lower house) is responsible for an average of 270,000 people." And then goes on to explain much more about that.
So yes I found it super eye-opening, engaging, and funny. If you are more versed in legalese this may be basic but I think the tone and quips will still make it entertaining. The only negative thing I have to say is that it could have been a bit longer and more fleshed out. It went really fast through some of the concepts in certain chapters and I'm having a hard time remembering them because I don't think I fully understood in the first place. That's not really the book's fault of course. Anyway, I will be definitely going back to read the author's first book and look forward to any future works!
May 18, 2025
I just finished this book so I am not sure I’ve had time to completely digest it yet. I think it will take me a long time to do so and I think I will come back to this book many times in the future. But it left me feeling energized and hopeful. In this time of political hopelessness, it is good to hear from someone who believes there are effective changes we could make. As someone who would like to run for political office someday this feels like a great playbook to start with. I don’t agree with everything that the author said, but for the most part, we are on the same political page. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about our government and our court system. It’s also really funny! It will definitely leave you with a lot of things to think about. Just some of the chapter headings include:
How can you murder someone if you didn’t kill anybody?
How did they fit the federal budgets inside people’s wombs?
Why do we protect arms dealers? And
Who died and put God in charge of our laws?
I’m glad this book came along now and I will continue to recommend it to friends and family.
How can you murder someone if you didn’t kill anybody?
How did they fit the federal budgets inside people’s wombs?
Why do we protect arms dealers? And
Who died and put God in charge of our laws?
I’m glad this book came along now and I will continue to recommend it to friends and family.
August 14, 2025
5 on fable
where do i even begin with this book…i was intimidated when i picked it because i wasn’t sure how dense/intense it would be, but this book was the best surprise and is now probably one of my favorite books ever??!!
the author makes conversations about the law accessible, engaging, and funny all while making sure that the reader leaves informed about the laws currently in place that are harming people around the country. he effortlessly weaves together humor, pain, and hope when talking about anti-abortion legislation, ‘dont say gay’ legislation, and the MANY laws that are built around protecting gun ownership in all its forms.
i learned SO much and got mad/sad/real laughter along the way. undoubtedly the most accessible LEGAL book i have read, and was really grateful for the perspective it added to my current mindset around today’s political climate.
where do i even begin with this book…i was intimidated when i picked it because i wasn’t sure how dense/intense it would be, but this book was the best surprise and is now probably one of my favorite books ever??!!
the author makes conversations about the law accessible, engaging, and funny all while making sure that the reader leaves informed about the laws currently in place that are harming people around the country. he effortlessly weaves together humor, pain, and hope when talking about anti-abortion legislation, ‘dont say gay’ legislation, and the MANY laws that are built around protecting gun ownership in all its forms.
i learned SO much and got mad/sad/real laughter along the way. undoubtedly the most accessible LEGAL book i have read, and was really grateful for the perspective it added to my current mindset around today’s political climate.
April 30, 2025
I will confess at the start of this review that I ADORE Elie Mystal. I read everything he writes including his first book, Allow to me Retort: A Black Man's Guide to the Constitution, his articles in The Nation magazine and even all his "tweets" (that are now BlueSky posts). Anyone who can explain laws and politics using Sci-Fi and Fantasy references is right up my alley. His writing is not only very informative and entertaining but he also nails topics right on the head. I cannot count how many times he has deciphered and predicted law decisions that have come to pass exactly as he stated (even if not how he wanted). If you are not following and reading his works, you are missing out on A LOT. Trigger warning - there is definitely cursing involved in his frustrated explanations of current events and laws so be prepared for that but, if that bothers you, I believe it is worth over-looking it for the knowledge you will gain. 10 out of 10 Big Stars!!
May 4, 2025
Officially 3.5 ⭐️ These are definitely some of the worst laws ever created but more sinister is the deliberate and often successful attempts at obscuring them from the American public. While the author does a great job at outlining the origin of these laws , the intention and the impact from the birth of the constitution to present day the efforts to repeal them feel completely out of reach in our present political landscape. This isn’t just because Republicans have a majority rule but the book also makes clear the many deficits of Democrats in being able to put up a fight to repeals these laws outright. I walked away from this one feeling doomed so maybe skip it if you’re not ready to hear the truth of where we are as a nation.
May 20, 2025
I had heard this author on NPR’s Fresh Air and the premise of the book intrigued me—all laws passed before 1965 are presumptively unconstitutional and should be justified. White men enacting laws to benefit white men. Covers voting rights, immigration, gun laws, incarceration, abortion, “don’t say gay” laws, among others.
I did not expect this book to be so funny! With a good amount of cursing. Very easy to understand for lay people and I learned a lot. I have been feeling rather hopeless about the state of things lately, but this book gave me hope. I may or may not have shouted “YES!” or “AMEN” a couple times. I don’t think I disagreed with a single point he made. A relatively short read, it is definitely worth your time and highly recommended.
I did not expect this book to be so funny! With a good amount of cursing. Very easy to understand for lay people and I learned a lot. I have been feeling rather hopeless about the state of things lately, but this book gave me hope. I may or may not have shouted “YES!” or “AMEN” a couple times. I don’t think I disagreed with a single point he made. A relatively short read, it is definitely worth your time and highly recommended.
August 24, 2025
Although Elie's tone put me off a bit at first (I felt like he was trying too hard to be funny and it came off a bit awkwardly in the beginning), he quickly hit his stride and I started enjoying the affronted incredulity.
There's not a lot in this book that would be new information for legal scholars, and probably 50-60% of it is more of a liberal-leaning rant than actual information. I didn't mind most of the ranty bits, even though it's a bit "preaching to the choir" (I guarantee no conservative-minded person is going to sit through that in hopes of broadening their perspective - I wouldn't if it was the other way around), because Elie has a way of putting things that are just "well, duh" but in a funny way.
I particularly enjoyed the 30 seconds where he explains how simple the difference is between sex, gender, sexuality, and f*cking, for example. His description of his son's relationship with his trans friend is similarly refreshing. (But the rant about conservative parents trying to police other people's kids in school, by contrast, was not particularly novel, and didn't really add to the legal discussion.)
For those of us who aren't legal scholars, the 50% of the book that isn't ranty has good information. Even if you're already familiar with the laws by name, which you probably will be (the adjective "popular" in the title refers to how well-known the laws are, not to how well they're supported/favored), there is good historical context for each of them that you might not be familiar with. In most cases, Elie also presents solutions to the laws (most of the time, it's simply repealment).
The book is an easy read, and humorous, but is a bit depressing/discouraging on the whole. Although Elie's tone is consistent throughout and never dives into the "there's just no hope" despairing tone, there's certainly plenty of justification for despair in the book - especially considering that even though this was written just a year ago (just before the 2024 election), several of the laws/issues mentioned have gone from bad to worse. Elie does present some possible reform solutions in the epilogue... but I think we're unlikely to see any of those in our lifetime the way it's going.
There's not a lot in this book that would be new information for legal scholars, and probably 50-60% of it is more of a liberal-leaning rant than actual information. I didn't mind most of the ranty bits, even though it's a bit "preaching to the choir" (I guarantee no conservative-minded person is going to sit through that in hopes of broadening their perspective - I wouldn't if it was the other way around), because Elie has a way of putting things that are just "well, duh" but in a funny way.
I particularly enjoyed the 30 seconds where he explains how simple the difference is between sex, gender, sexuality, and f*cking, for example. His description of his son's relationship with his trans friend is similarly refreshing. (But the rant about conservative parents trying to police other people's kids in school, by contrast, was not particularly novel, and didn't really add to the legal discussion.)
For those of us who aren't legal scholars, the 50% of the book that isn't ranty has good information. Even if you're already familiar with the laws by name, which you probably will be (the adjective "popular" in the title refers to how well-known the laws are, not to how well they're supported/favored), there is good historical context for each of them that you might not be familiar with. In most cases, Elie also presents solutions to the laws (most of the time, it's simply repealment).
The book is an easy read, and humorous, but is a bit depressing/discouraging on the whole. Although Elie's tone is consistent throughout and never dives into the "there's just no hope" despairing tone, there's certainly plenty of justification for despair in the book - especially considering that even though this was written just a year ago (just before the 2024 election), several of the laws/issues mentioned have gone from bad to worse. Elie does present some possible reform solutions in the epilogue... but I think we're unlikely to see any of those in our lifetime the way it's going.
August 25, 2025
Bit of a doomscroller
Well, this is a rough book to read if you're already at odds with the current political direction of the country. The first part of the book really reads like it was written by an "angry black man," which it most certainly was. I don't have that much patience for an extended argument where I'm already in agreement. Once I get it and I agree, I feel like I'm being bludgeoned by the argument.
I found the second half of the book to be a little less about yelling about how horriible and stupid the people in charge have been through these various laws, or else maybe I just got more used to the author's style.
I'll be glad to return to my usual fare of unlikely murders in quaint little villages for a while.
Well, this is a rough book to read if you're already at odds with the current political direction of the country. The first part of the book really reads like it was written by an "angry black man," which it most certainly was. I don't have that much patience for an extended argument where I'm already in agreement. Once I get it and I agree, I feel like I'm being bludgeoned by the argument.
I found the second half of the book to be a little less about yelling about how horriible and stupid the people in charge have been through these various laws, or else maybe I just got more used to the author's style.
I'll be glad to return to my usual fare of unlikely murders in quaint little villages for a while.
May 27, 2025
Often when I read a book, especially a non-fiction book, I write down key thoughts that I can use in my write-ups for Goodreads. Unfortunately with Elie Mystal’s book, so so many of his thoughts superbly express ideas in such a succinct and clear way that I could produce a completely new book of featured highlights. With this in mind, I will not rewrite each of the ten pieces of legislation that Mystal suggests are racist, unjust and simply bad laws. Instead, I urge everyone to read this book, digest the information, and consider the best way to act.
“Every law in this book can be repealed by an act of Congress or an act of state legislatures. Every bad law can be replaced by a good one.”
“Every law in this book can be repealed by an act of Congress or an act of state legislatures. Every bad law can be replaced by a good one.”
June 13, 2025
Not going to lie. At first I was a bit defensive when reading the Introduction and first chapter. After that, I settled down and started "actively reading" the book.
And was amazed.
I've never read anything by Elie Mystal before but am now a fan. To be fair, don't agree with all the perspectives put forth - but it was great to be genuinely challenged to THINK for a change.
Really interesting read if you can set aside any preconceived notions.
I value the time I spent reading it and immediately grabbed his first book. Can't wait to dig in.
And was amazed.
I've never read anything by Elie Mystal before but am now a fan. To be fair, don't agree with all the perspectives put forth - but it was great to be genuinely challenged to THINK for a change.
Really interesting read if you can set aside any preconceived notions.
I value the time I spent reading it and immediately grabbed his first book. Can't wait to dig in.
September 13, 2025
To begin on a positive note, this man's snark is a true feast for the most cynical senses. I outright guffawed as his description of Bill Clinton in the final chapter, (p. 210 in my edition), as "the perfected version of the Republicans' own teachings, and the GOP couldn't stand being beaten at their own game."
Also, I appreciate his telling of the sordid origins of the Second Amendment, and I'm especially intrigued by his proposal to increase the number of Representatives in the House via the Wyoming Rule, i.e. giving every state the same representative ratio that Wyoming has.
I could have done without the simplistic, crass stereotypes and endless ad hominem blather, especially from a Harvard Law scholar who knows better. And I wish he didn't pull out the tired "poor-women-need-abortions" trope . . . when he should *also* know better. Fight for affordable housing and groceries and daycare. Add some universal health care and paid maternity leave. *Then* see how many women show up at the abortion clinic's tissue-papered exam table. I can assure you that number will be sparse. But then, people like me probably confuse Mystal, who already has everyone tightly packaged into comfortable stereotypes. Open those packaged boxes, and you might find some people who can think outside of them . . .
Also, I appreciate his telling of the sordid origins of the Second Amendment, and I'm especially intrigued by his proposal to increase the number of Representatives in the House via the Wyoming Rule, i.e. giving every state the same representative ratio that Wyoming has.
I could have done without the simplistic, crass stereotypes and endless ad hominem blather, especially from a Harvard Law scholar who knows better. And I wish he didn't pull out the tired "poor-women-need-abortions" trope . . . when he should *also* know better. Fight for affordable housing and groceries and daycare. Add some universal health care and paid maternity leave. *Then* see how many women show up at the abortion clinic's tissue-papered exam table. I can assure you that number will be sparse. But then, people like me probably confuse Mystal, who already has everyone tightly packaged into comfortable stereotypes. Open those packaged boxes, and you might find some people who can think outside of them . . .
November 9, 2025
I, like most people, prefer polemical texts when I agree with every point the author makes, and I didn’t agree with every point Mystal made. His writing style is very funny, and I appreciated the casual tone and lack of stuffiness in a book analyzing various statutes, but he made a lot of oversimplified strawman arguments, and I wish he’d provided more support for the assertions he made. At times the analysis felt a bit surface-level, and even though the book was only 229 pages, a mere 16 pages of notes does not signal especially rigorous research to me.
May 25, 2025
Elie Mystal is a fantastic legal mind. He presents ten really bad laws in this country that he feels are causing great harm and need to be done away with. He does it in a very informative manner but with his usual wit, crass language and humorous insight into the reasons these laws should be repealed. I give the book 5 stars. I wish more of the country would read this and open their eyes to the unfair laws in our country that primarily target poor people and people of color.
July 30, 2025
Really good and informative book. I learned a lot about some terrible laws and their effect on our daily lives, and how they perpetuate racism, sexism, and white supremacy. Examples include the deregulation of air travel, the three strikes law, the Hyde amendment banning the use of federal funds for abortion, the existence of the felony murder charge, etc...
I listened to the book on Audible, and it was read by the author. His sarcasm and passion really shone through his reading.
I listened to the book on Audible, and it was read by the author. His sarcasm and passion really shone through his reading.
June 9, 2025
Quick impressions: Overall I really like the book, and I think it is a necessary book. I did order a copy for our library, and I strongly recommend other libraries, public and academic, order it for their collections.
(A full detailed review with additional reading notes available on my blog soon.)
(A full detailed review with additional reading notes available on my blog soon.)
July 10, 2025
Excellent all around. Mystal is great at explaining things that in lesser hands would be confusing and long winded. Each law/chapter covers a lot of ground while still staying focused. Action items are given at the end, a section I throughly enjoyed. REALLY wish I could force all politicians/justices to read this.
April 8, 2025
Abolish the Senate.
July 15, 2025
This is the book I would write if I wanted to explain laws that should be repealed. I agree 100%. Love his honesty backed up with facts 👏🏼
November 8, 2025
Much like Allow Me to Retort, Bad Law is indispensable in its knowledge, irreverence, and exasperated humor. I will forever read Elie's books.
November 27, 2025
12 stars. I learned so much. It’s like all those political things you know you’re right about but can’t quite explain why…he explains them. So much practical history and logic.
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