Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution
by Elie Mystal
published by the New Press
2022
This is the most fun law-themed book I’ve read in ages, delivering just what I hoped from the witty and passionate commentator, Elie Mystal.
For those of us who work in law and have copies of the U.S. Constitution in our homes, we live in discomfort. Because: we’ve read the thing. And it’s… not the best experience. When I get to the parts that tell me, a woman of color, that I should be counted as 3/5ths of a person, or it takes until the 19th Amendment to get a right to vote, I don’t exactly feel the warm fuzzies. And when I routinely read Supreme Court decisions, especially the parts written by the conservatives who think that we should interpret the document as the original writers would have liked, locking our values in a prior century, I am ANGRY.
Elie Mystal feels all of that anger AND he writes about it in a very engaging, pop-culture-reference-friendly, fun to read way!
Chapters have titles like, “Canceling Trash People is Not a Constitutional Crisis.” (Yesssssss!). The so-called originalists and their only-originalist-if-I-get-what-I-want hypocrisy is CALLED OUT. He calls out so much B.S. that passes for legal thought, but is really just selective, self-serving nonsense. It is REFRESHING – especially with so many people breathless about the Constitution in a way that fails to address its limitations.
This is topical, thoughtful, well-written, relevant, and might make you cackle loudly and alarm others nearby. I highly recommend this book.