Freethinkers Book Club: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution By Elie Mystal

Freethinkers Book Club

Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution

By Elie Mystal

Wednesday, October 25, 2023, 7:00 – 8:30 pm

Hosted by: Karen C.

According to legal commentator and lawyer, Elie Mystal, the First Amendment actually does not allow religious fundamentalists to discriminate against gay people who want to buy a cake. Those who argue to the contrary are wrong.  They’re also wrong when they tell you the Second Amendment protects the right to own an armory. And they’re wrong when they say we have no legal remedies for police brutality against people of color.

With his trademark humor and in his book, Allow Me to Retort, he describes what rights we have, what rights political conservatives are trying to take away, and how to stop them. From the perspective of a black man and recognizing that people of color and women have been afterthoughts to our Constitution, he shows how recent conservative application of constitutional doctrine is meant to further suppress the rights of those groups and others. He explains how originalists hide their agenda behind the notion that the Constitutional text is immutable. Instead, he shows how there is plenty of room for change and illustrates how laws that protect us all can be improved upon by rejecting conservative interpretations of these rights.

Elie Mystal is The Nation’s legal analyst and justice correspondent, an Alfred Knobler Fellow at the Type Media Center, the legal editor of the More Perfect podcast on the Supreme Court for Radiolab, and a frequent guest on MSNBC. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Previously he was the executive editor of Above the Law and an associate at Debevoise and Plimpton. He lives in NYC.

Feel free to join if you have not read the book, but if so, please take a look at one or more of these resources.

• American Constitution Society Summer Reading List Book Talk: Allow Me to Retort https://www.acslaw.org/video/acs-summer-reading-list-book-talk-allow-me-to-retort/

• https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/elie-mystal-allow-me-to-retort-interview/

• https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/allow-me-retort

• Why the U.S. Constitution is Trash, the Giro Politics.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpWKMtntf6I
• Author Elie Mystal on His New Book, “Allow Me to Retore: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution”, Yes Magazine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ROU91aOOko 

Please join us!

Participants are encouraged to join the Pittsburgh Freethought Community if not already a member.
https://pghfreethought.org/Become-a-member