Bad Law

Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America

The New York Times bestselling author brings his trademark legal acumen and passionate snark to offer a brilliant takedown of ten incredibly bad pieces of legislation that are causing way too much misery to millions

“If it were up to me, I’d treat every law passed before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as presumptively unconstitutional. The government of this country was illegitimate when it ruled over people who had no ability to choose the rules.”
—from the introduction to Bad Law

In Bad Law, the New York Times bestselling author of Allow Me To Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution brings his trademark legal acumen and passionate snark to a brilliant takedown of ten of what he considers the most egregiously awful laws on the books today. These are pieces of legislation that are making life worse rather than better for Americans, and that, he argues with trenchant wit and biting humor, should be repealed completely.

On topics ranging from abortion and immigration to voting rights and religious freedom, we have chosen rules to live by that do not reflect the will of most of the people. With respect to our decision to make a law that effectively grants immunity to gun manufacturers, for example, Mystal writes, “We live in the most violent, wealthy country on earth not in spite of the law; we live in a first-person-shooter video game because of the law.”

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 marvelous and 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.

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Praise

“Elie Mystal offers a searing, deeply analytical but accessible critique of the prevailing legal regimes in the U.S., which are vestiges of the racism and misogyny that define much of our country’s history. Using the wit and insight he has become known for in his writing and commentary, Mystal makes the compelling case that there is a profound disconnect between the laws that we have and the laws that we need and want. Anyone who supports achieving a truly pluralistic, multiracial democracy in this nation should take this analysis seriously.”
—Russ Feingold, former U.S. senator and president of the American Constitution Society
“Elie 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. In Bad Law, Mystal also speaks as an irreverent Moses throwing down on the Ten Commandments of Lousy Laws, replacing ‘Thou Shalt Not’ with ‘Should Not Be,’ since this legislation should no longer be on the books or on our backs. Thank God this brilliant and angry prophet doesn’t stutter as he tosses these laws into a burning bush of common sense that fuels the common good.”
—Michael Eric Dyson, university distinguished professor, Vanderbilt University, and New York Times bestselling author of Tears We Cannot Stop

Books by Elie Mystal

Allow Me to Retort

Allow Me to Retort

A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution

Elie Mystal

Goodreads Reviews