Note: Thank you to NetGalley, The New Press, and author Elie Mystal for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

Elie Mystal is a well-known liberal author who also happens to be The Nation’s legal analyst and justice correspondent. This book intrigued me by the title, since I have always thought there were a lot of “bad laws” in this country. I was expecting something different than what I got. Mystal is a funny and irreverent writer, which works well to offset the gravity of the serious topics he tackles in Bad Law. He’s also a realist, so while he can declare what needs to be done to deal with these bad laws, he also knows it will likely never happen, at least in either one of our lifetimes.

What are the bad laws he cites? Things like voter registration, Stand Your Ground, reproductive rights, immunity to gun manufacturers, and the Don’t Say Gay laws. I was expecting some lesser-known laws that aren’t effective in the way they were designed to be. Instead, this has to do more with the usual litany of complaints heard by left-wing talking heads. Being fairly liberal myself, I found myself nodding along with Mystal’s assertions for the most part. The humor he injects makes this more fun to read than your average left-wing call to arms.

I agree about voter registration. Mystal believes the onus should be on the government to prove that someone isn’t qualified to vote under the law, rather than on the citizen to prove that he or she is qualified. However, both he and I know that these laws are put in place as a way of discouraging people from voting. Here in New Hampshire, we have same-day registration for voting, and it works well with few instances of fraud. In fact, Mystal makes the point that voter fraud is rare, but serves as a rallying cry to gain support for the impediments certain people want to put in the way of voting, especially by groups who don’t usually vote with them.

While I enjoyed the book and the humor, there really wasn’t anything new here. Mystal’s style made for an enjoyable read, but I was expecting to read about laws I hadn’t heard of or that were misused. I believe that’s the case with the felony murder law he cites. The idea is that if someone is committing a felony and during the commission of the crime someone is killed, they are charged with felony murder regardless of intent. This sounds great when you’re talking about drive-by shootings: the person driving the car is just as guilty as the person holding the gun. They knowingly set out to kill people. It’s less clear in other cases, particularly when a police officer is involved. Take the case of someone who shoplifts enough merchandise for it to qualify as a felony. If the person leaves the store and runs from the police, and the police fire into a crowd and kill someone, the shoplifter can be charged with felony murder. Meanwhile, that person had no weapon on them and no intention to take anyone’s life or hurt them.

He also does a great job talking about how most of the horrible laws seem to come out of Florida. I laughed out loud when he said that it was ground zero for these bad laws. What is it about that state? The humor kept me reading, even as I agreed with him that what needs to be done to remedy most of these laws won’t get anywhere in this country. Ever wonder why there are 435 members of the House of Representatives? Mystal shows how if the original intent of the authors of the Constitution were followed, there would likely be over 1,000 members of the House of Representatives. To me, that sounds like a good thing, but back in the pre-FDR days, a certain political party pushed through a law that capped the representatives at 435 to combat how many people were moving from rural areas to cities.

I did enjoy Bad Law. It was what I was expecting, and there really wasn’t much in here I didn’t know already, but Elie Mystal’s style is fun to read. Mystal’s writing is clear enough to understand the case he’s making against these laws and why they shouldn’t be on the books. His humor takes the book away from being a rant against the ills of our society and makes the topics easier to digest, especially during these terrible times we’re currently in.