Elie Mystal: Ten Laws That Are Ruining America

Bestselling author, popular commentator, and former litigator Elie Mystal has long been critical of the U.S. Constitution. Now he focuses his ire on 10 laws that he says are causing way too much misery to millions.

In Bad Law, Mystal brings his trademark legal acumen and passionate snark to a takedown of 10 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 These are pieces of legislation that are making life worse rather than better for Americans and should be repealed completely.

On topics ranging from abortion and immigration to voting rights and religious freedom, he says Americans have chosen rules to live by that do not reflect the will of most of the people. With respect to the 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.

Don’t miss Mystal at Commonwealth Club World Affairs as he visits all the hot-button topics in the country today.

SPEAKERS

Elie Mystal, Legal Analyst and Justice Correspondent, The Nation; Author, Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America

Moderator TBA

5:30 p.m. doors open & check-in
6–7 p.m. program
7 p.m. book signing

Host or Publisher The Commonwealth Club