Leah, Kate, and Melissa are joined this week by Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for The Nation, whose new book is Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America. They talk about what rotten laws should be done away with while touching on the latest news, including the detention of Mahmoud Khalil and the dismantling of the Department of Education. 

Hosts’ favorite things this week:

• Melissa: The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir by Martha Jones; Paradise (Hulu) 
• Leah: Bad Law by Elie Mystal; The Bee Sting by Paul Murray; Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar; Corruption & the Maximalist Theory of Presidential Power by Bob Bauer (Executive Functions); Five Questions about The Khalil Case by Steve Vladeck (One First)
• Kate: Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac; Interview with Lindsay Nash on Mahmoud Khalil by Isaac Chotiner (New Yorker)

Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025! 

• 5/31 – Washington DC
• 6/12 – NYC
• 10/4 – Chicago

Learn more: http://crooked.com/events

Pre-order your copy of Leah's forthcoming book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes (out May 13th)

Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky