Reviews - Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes

212 reviews for:

Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes

Leah Litman

4.23 AVERAGE

eaclapp41's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark informative medium-paced

Well, we had a good run as a country.

cjknight09's review against another edition

2.0

funny informative fast-paced

rjustinelsner's review against another edition

5.0

informative medium-paced

clairebartholomew549's review against another edition

4.0

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Leah Litman is a law professor and cohost of the Supreme Court podcast Strict Scrutiny. This book goes deep on five different areas where the Supreme Court is doing major, potentially irreversible, damage: abortion, voting rights, LGBTQIA discrimination, campaign finance, and the government agencies tasked with dealing with the practical issues of running a country (the EPA, OSHA, SEC, CDC, etc.).

This book is extremely readable and breaks down everything the Supreme Court has fucked up recently in mostly comprehensible pieces. Litman does a good job blending case descriptions with what's going on outside the courts to give the reader a really full picture, and what emerges is a powerful picture of how we've gotten to the point we are now. She defines terms that are likely unfamiliar to a non-lawyer, and she doesn't get so into the weeds that you can't follow it.

There were definitely parts of this book that felt a little too yassified to me - the constant Game of Thrones references in one section were just annoying, and the Barbie/Ken jokes got old quickly. I get that Litman wanted to make this book more palatable and accessible to people who are not lawyers and who are not familiar with the court, and I don't think legal issues need to be discussed with the reverence or elevated language that some people insist on. But the tone felt pretty inconsistent: sometimes dire, sometimes weirdly lighthearted, sometimes cynical, etc. On the one hand, that makes sense because you can't feel horrible about everything all the time and the Supreme Court sparks dozens of emotions in me, but for some reason, it didn't work for me. Litman has a similar tone and approach on Strict Scrutiny, but it feels more natural there and less like she's desperately trying to appeal to Gen-Z. I still think this is a very useful book that really packs a lot of information, so I recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!

Content Warnings