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204 reviews for:
Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes
Leah Litman
4.23 AVERAGE
204 reviews for:
Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes
Leah Litman
4.23 AVERAGE
challenging
funny
informative
fast-paced
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
challenging
dark
funny
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Very insightful. If you’re interested in democracy, understanding judicial systems, conservative damage, etc you should read this
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This book clearly involved a great deal of research and deep dives on so much of what the Supreme Court has done over the years, which I greatly appreciate, along with the conclusion chapter in which advice and next steps are given to help guide readers on what they can do. It was interesting how Litman touched on abortion, LGBTQ issues, voting rights, money, and governmental agencies by relating them to the Barbie movie, Mean Girls, Game of Thrones, Arrested Development, and American Psycho respectively. Ultimately, these pop culture ties took me out of things and didn’t work for me as well, but I can see how some readers might appreciate them more.
funny
informative
medium-paced
dark
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
For anyone who looks at the current Supreme Court and has the gut feeling that something is rotten in Denmark, this book is just what you need. Leah Litman has taken her extensive knowledge of history and the law and combined it with her razor-sharp commentary and a love for pop culture to show pretty definitively how and why your gut feeling is on to something. Broken down into five large chapters covering women’s rights, queer rights, race & voting rights, money & oligarchical influence, and an obsession with dismantling federal agencies and committees. With tongue firmly in cheek (and a command of the facts that is exacting and damning) she uses the pop-culture references of Barbie, Mean Girls, Game of Thrones, Arrested Development, and American Psycho to keep each chapter playful.
The scholarship is precise and really compelling, tracing ideas and precedents all the way to the founding of the country. There is nothing surface level about it at all. The tone, though, is playful. It is almost conversational, never talking down to the audience and yet always giving more than enough information so you can grasp whatever historical detail or point is being made. There is so much that could be said about the Supreme Court that it is amazing she could narrow this narrative down to those five points, but they feel representative of the Court as a whole and this book manages to feel expansive without feeling overstuffed.
For me her wit and tone, along with great scholarship, were more than enough to keep me engaged in the book. I didn’t really need the pop-culture references, they didn’t add much for me. Yet they weren’t distracting, referenced more in section titles and occasional summaries than anything else, and they did add a sense of levity to what is a pretty depressing topic. Because the conclusion she reaches, which you can’t really blame her for, isn’t a great one. There are significant problems with the current Court and no easy ways to fix it, given the current tides of partisan power. She ends, though, with a call for knowledge, because the best hope for creating a future you want to live in is to be knowledgeable about the systems that are causing harm so you know how to stand up to them and how to rebuild them, better, when the chance might arise. This book goes a long way toward that end, not resting on gut feelings or vibes but instead offering deeply researched analysis in an accessible way.
informative
medium-paced