I don't want to be a cynic or a pessimist, but I'm sure something of what follows is going to come off that way.

Upon exiting the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked what sort of government the delegates had created. Ever the one to come up with a quick quip and memorable line (he'd love Twitter for its short and snappy format, though he might have misgivings other aspects of it), the venerable Founding Father said "A republic, if you can keep it."

While the Republic has been tested many times since that day, surviving riots, insurrections, a civil war, world wars, scandals, assassinations, impeachments, racism, inequality, and more, there are times when I wonder at how much we, as a people, can succeed if we don't understand our institutions and laws. To exacerbate things, our laws can seem complex and complicated.

Enter "The Law Says What? Stuff You Didn't Know About the Law (But Really Should!)" by Maclen Stanley, a short and simple guide to understanding our law. No, it's no the panacea to civics ignorance, but it is a well-written crash course on our laws and can go a long way to helping everyone understand how the law works.

Maclen says that he has two goals in writing the book: First, to introduce readers to the "interested, weird, and sometimes irritating things" that they don't know about the law, "but really should." And second, to help them learn to think like a lawyer, and for a book so thin, he makes headway towards both of those goals. Heck, I plan on making it required reading for my daughters once they're a little older. Every American should understand our laws better, especially if they're going to keep our republican experiment going for another generation. ( )

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The Law Says What? Stuff You Didn’t Know About the Law (but Really Should) by Maclen Stanley is a quick primer about the US legal system. Mr. Stanley is a Harvard Law School graduates, and owns his own firm.

As a political junky and someone who attempts to be informed, this book was right up my alley. The Law Says What? Stuff You Didn’t Know About the Law (but Really Should) by Maclen Stanley is informative, as it is entertaining.

Mr. Stanley has managed to simplify legal concepts, give examples and source them as well. Not surprisingly, many of the laws are contradictory, or convoluted. For example, marijuana is both legal and illegal, depends on where you live and what you’re charged with.

The old adage is that in order to play in the system, you need to know the rules. While certainly you’re not going to get a degree, you will certainly be more informed after reading this book.

The author gives a lot of examples, some known, but many lesser-known ones. Furthermore, many of the high-profile cases are not as straight forward as we think they are. This, of course, has more to do with people’s disdain of nuances, and the enthusiastic embrace of fake outrage bullet points.

I found much of the book interesting, even about the parts I disagree with. For example, Mr. Stanley makes the case for Civil Asset Forfeiture, an aspect which is important to understand, yet entirely incomprehensible to me that it actually exists. As always, the road to hell is paved with good intentions and this aspect of the legal system has been abused to the point of absurdity.
Not to worry though, if your assets are taken and they are found to be not guilty, you’ll get 80% of it back.

This is just one aspect of the book which is both enjoyable and infuriating, even if the author dislikes the best ice-cream flavor around (rum raisin). To be fair, enjoyable and infuriating are many aspects of living in this world. ( )