I read Elie Mystal’s second book, Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America, and now I have a reinvigorated hatred of the Hyde Amendment.

Mystal is one of my favorite political writers because he takes complex topics and makes them accessible and also there is lots of swearing. I always learn something.

Bad Law dives right in with voter registration. In America, we burden individuals with proving themselves eligible to vote. This is fine if you can you’ve got a driver’s license or some other form of ID, but if you don’t, then you have to go get one. That costs money and hours at the DMV, which is a big ask for people in low-wage hourly jobs. The state, not the individual, should bear the burden of proving voter eligibility. Which seems obvious now that I think about it.

Mystal did not set out to write a book that would win hearts and minds across America. He set out to write a book that help progressives make better arguments against bad laws.

If you like audiobooks, at all, even a little, this book deserves to be listened to. If you’re merely audiobook-curious, here’s your nudge to take the plunge. Mystal’s reading is delightful. He narrates like he’s having a conversation. It’s lovely. And there is this one passage with excerpts of the writing of founding father John Adams where Mystal goes into this fussy, be-wigged white guy voice and it is hysterical.

I listened to The Highest Law in the Land: How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy, written by Jessica Pishko and narrated by Nan McNamara.

Eligibility requirements for sheriff vary by state, with some states requiring no education beyond high school and no experience in law enforcement. Unlike chiefs of police, who are appointed, sheriffs are elected to office. They answer to nobody except the electorate, which is not terribly reassuring, since around half of the races for sheriff are uncontested. It’s even less reassuring when you understand that something like ninety percent of incumbents win re-election.

These entrenched sheriffs are overwhelmingly white, male, and Republican, and a great many of those are politically far right. And as I learned in Pishko’s book, a whole lot of sheriffs see themselves as the highest legal authority in their county. For interpreting and enforcing the law, they claim supremacy above congress, the president, and federal agents.

Covering topics including immigration, gun control, covid mask mandates, and sundown laws, Pishko shows the outsize influence sheriffs have on social control within their communities, how they incarcerate people for profit and even as shocking numbers of people die in their custody.

Read Pishko’s book to understand how much power is concentrated in the office of sheriff and the ways it is widely abused