Things I like: Two Books About Law

I have a weird fascination with the law. It tickles my brain in some of the ways biology does - lot to learn, often a bit arcane especially when you get into interacting elements. But there's also a slightly horrifying "But there isn't actually a ground truth! We're just making shit up, and the closest thing to ground truths we have were often made by really horrible people, making sometimes well thought out decisions for really bad reasons!" Sometimes I feel like a real wimp for going for science over policy, but darn, I like science.

In particular I've had a bit of a ConLaw hobby for a while. I try not to burden people with it unless they bring up something relevant. And I don't pretend to be any sort of expert, though I do occasionally think "Hm, maybe I should have gone to law school," or "Maybe I should go to law school!" Ahaha, no, at least, not now.

So, we will start with Elie Mystal's Allow Me To Retort.

This book is both fun and joyful. (I particularly recommend the audiobook version, which the author narrates.) It is an unabashedly social justice focused (I'm just not up for navigating the liberal / lefty thing right now) take on the constitution. It starts with the line "Our constitution is not good," which by itself was a tremendous relief to hear, because it is at once obvious, and yet something we often pretend around. And then there's a romp somewhat through the constitution, more through the bill of rights, with some emphasis on the reconstruction amendments, and how they have been both undermined and expanded in the years since. With a lot of pop culture humor and cheerful ranting.

Seriously, when the leak of the Dobbs decision happened, I turned to this book to listen again to the chapter on abortion. While the subject matter is serious, it's an easy read and an easier listen because Elie Mystal's delivery is on point and hilarious. This is also a book I could see buying for friends and family.


I've been a Dahlia Lithwick reader / listener for a long time now. If you follow her podcast, Amicus, you know that she (with a number of others) have been broadening their reporting to focus not just on the law as related to surpreme court rulings, but also the political context and frankly how fucked is our current situation. Her book Lady Justice was a slower, more contemplative read.

It's organized as a series of profiles of women in law (or sometimes who were in law and who have moved on to political organizing) who are doing important work. It starts with the organizing of the legal resistance to Trump's immigration bans, and goes from there. Much of it is inspiring, but it's largely about people who are wrestling with difficult problems with no complete answers in sight. And it's about how women have often found that the law is the tool that best gives them rights - even as it was the very thing that codified them not having rights before. But it's also about people who are doing things and making a serious difference.

Figuring out how to effectively move forward is hard, but it's what I want to be thinking about now, I think. The profile of Stacy Abrams, and how the demographics are such that it is possible to register new voters faster than they can gerrymander those voters into insignificance is one of those things that is really sticking with me, in the deeply screwed up state in which I now reside.


Honorable mention: Have you gotten the sense that the Supreme Court has somehow become nine unelected and unaccountable dictators, and struggle to square this with what you learned about checks and balances? Stephen Vladeck's The Shadow Docket will take you through the history of all the various power grabs that got us here. It only gets honorable mention because it is unapologetically wonkish. I mean, I found it compelling, but I suspect there's a flaw in my character.