Elie Mystal does a fantastic job in writing this type of book, it had that feel that I was looking for and enjoyed the overall concept of this book. It had that legal element that I was looking for and was interested in the humor from the book. It had that research behind it and was informative and fun.

Elie Mystal, Bad Law Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America, The New Press, March 2025.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

Elie Mystal does not disappoint in this fiercely passionate, but so cleverly analytical, exposure of the inherent inequality espoused in the ten laws he addresses in this volume. Some of Mystal’s language, as for the first of his books I read, Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution could possibly offend. But, how on earth can his language be more offensive than the laws he opens to scrutiny? Let us try to be fair at least in this small contribution to fairness amongst the appalling unfairness Mystal exposes and read with as open a mind as possible. There is plenty to offend, and it is certainly not Mystal and his arguments. He asserts that the facts he presents are correct – he has no problem with having a fact checker! He also acknowledges that this being so, that a reader who disagrees is doing so because of the conclusions he draws from the facts. Although this statement is made in the acknowledgements, I believe it is imperative that it forms part of this review and underpins the reading of this book.

The laws Mystal writes about are related to voting, immigration, airline deregulation, incarceration, shootings in America and arms dealers, the U.S. Capitol attack, murders of Black people, the Second Amendment, abortion, homosexuality, and the influence of religion on laws. In the epilogue he sets out how to deal with the laws that he has effectively argued are ‘bad laws.’ The extensive notes are valuable.

Mystal suggests that readers could question the inclusion of airline deregulation after the horrendous accounts of the impact of the laws governing voting and immigration. However, his explanation for including airline deregulation adds weight to understanding Mystal’s concerns. The background this deregulation provides so much information about the thinking that went into the process, from the perspectives of the political parties’ roles to the political ideology that is the foundation for such deregulation.
I was particularly impressed with Mystal’s criticism of the proposal that bad laws, judgements based in inequality and questionable moral behaviour can be excused as ‘being of their time.’ He correctly suggests that commentators who use this excuse should consider what was happening at the time. Were there no alternative views? No questioning of the inequalities in proposed legalisation? No moral ambiguity about the behaviour? Did every contribution to the debate support the bad laws Mystal exposes? Mystal makes such a valid point here – one that should make us question the ‘of their time’ an argument.

The last point is one of the reasons I find Mystal’s work engrossing. Perhaps it is not necessary to agree with every point he makes. But it certainly is worth coming to grips with these points. “Bad Law Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America” is an overwhelming work. While the exposure of bad laws and why they have been developed makes for difficult reading, this is trivial when compared with how the laws impact and the injustices exposed. Thank you, Elie Mystal, for getting the interrogation started.

Thank you, The New Press, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I just finished Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America, by Elie Mystal.

This book will be released on March 25, 2025. It is my second book that I have read by this author. I previously gave Allow Me To Retort an A+ in 2022.

There are so many great points that the author makes and so much material in this book that I’ve decided to go chapter by chapter on his 10 laws (OK, 9 laws plus one constitutional amendment).

Mystal starts with how voter registration laws are a form of voter suppression. He goes into history of voting and explains that John Adams, among others, wanted to restrict voting the “right people” (aka rich white men) and registration is just a modern day way to attempting to limit voting rights. He then tackles immigration in the next chapter on our immigration laws.

After that, we get a discussion of neoliberalism (or, as the author correctly points out, Democrats acting like Republicans) and deregulation—using the airline industry as his example. He then moves on to criminal law. At first, it appears the chapter will be about the 1994 Crime Bill, which while bad, wasn’t the worst federal criminal law on the books. Mystal says “The best way to think about the bill is as the capstone to a decade-long project of criminalizing Blackness and locking up Black youths for the titillation and applause of white voters.” But, instead, the focus is on Reagan’s 1984 crime bill (the Armed Career Criminal Act) and other criminal laws.

We then get a chapter of giving liability immunity to gun manufacturers. Then comes felony murder statutes. For those smart enough not to go to law school, that means charging someone with murder even though they didn’t intend to kill someone while they were committing a different crime. We then move up to the Castle Doctrine, which allows one to kill trespassers even though they presented no threat to them. And when you look at how the law is actually implemented, it means it allows whites to kill blacks who accidentally trespass onto their land without presenting any harm. The same chapter also covers Stand Your Ground laws, which extends that doctrine to anywhere in which a white person feels as if they are threatened by the presence of a black person.

There are also chapters on the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal money from being used for abortions. That would be the easiest to repeal, since it is an annual provision in the budget and would just need to have that line deleted.Then there is coverage of “Don’t Say Gay” laws. The book concludes with the RFRA, which “has become the biggest tool in the shed of Christian fundamentalists looking to force their God down other people’s throats. It has perverted the free exercise clause from a shield for the oppressed into a weapon of the oppressors.”



There are so many great arguments in this book. I give it a well-deserved A+ and induct it into the Hall of Fame.

I hope that it will also come out in audiobook version, so I can also listen to it.

Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A+ equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

I finished reading this on December 10, 2024.