Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America

In Bad Law, the New York Times bestselling author of Allow Me to Retort reimagines what our legal system, and society at large, could look like if we could move past legislation plagued by racism, misogyny, and corruption. In this readable, enjoyable, and informative volume, Elie Mystal offers “an actionable guide to meaningful change” (Publishers Weekly), arguing that these egregiously awful laws—his “Bill of Wrongs”—continue to cause systematic and individual harm and should be repealed completely.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 on:

• abortion, the Hyde Amendment, and the role that federal funding, or lack thereof, has played in depriving women of necessary health and reproductive care
• immigration, 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, 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” 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.