Elie Mystal

Elie Mystal Jr. (born May 10, 1978) is an American attorney, writer, and political commentator.[1] He is the justice correspondent at The Nation, where he writes about the courts and the criminal justice system.[2][3] Mystal has described himself as a liberal.[1]

Elie Mystal
Elie Mystal, 2023
Born
Elie Mystal Jr.

(1978-05-10) May 10, 1978
EducationHarvard University (AB, JD)
Occupation(s)Writer and political commentator
EmployerThe Nation
Known forCommentary and criticism about the United States Constitution
SpouseChristine Nyereyegona
Children2

Early life and education

Mystal is the son of Elie Mystal Sr. His father was the first African American elected to the Suffolk County (New York state) Legislature and an influential political operative whose career ended with a fine for violating election district residency laws.[4]

Mystal received a degree in government at Harvard College and a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School.[5]

Career

Mystal is a former associate and litigator at the Debevoise & Plimpton law firm.[2][5] He is a former executive editor of the Above the Law legal news website.[2] He has made guest appearances on MSNBC and Sirius XM.[2]

He is the author of Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution, which is intended to be an "easily digestible argument about what rights we have, what rights Republicans are trying to take away, and how to stop them."[6] Mystal's book, which was published by The New Press in March 2022, made The New York Times Best Seller list that same month.[7]

As of 2022 he was a board member of Demand Justice, a liberal judicial advocacy group.[8]

Views

Mystal has described himself as a liberal.[1] He has been an outspoken supporter of civil rights, abortion rights,[9][10] and legal rights and protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.

In March 2022, he said the United States Constitution is "actually trash", pointing to the Fugitive Slave Clause and the Three-fifths Compromise.[1][11] In the same interview, he said about the Constitution: "We act like this thing was kind of etched in stone by the finger of God, when actually it was hotly contested and debated, scrawled out over a couple of weeks in the summer in Philadelphia in 1787, with a bunch of rich, white politicians making deals with each other."[1] Mystal has also described the Founding Fathers of the United States as "racist, misogynist jerk-faces" and "sick, rapist bastards".[12][13] Mystal described the United States as a "racist pariah state" in 2020.[14] In 2021 he said the United States spreads "the myth of white exceptionalism" through its education system.[15]

In August 2022, Mystal described Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker as "what Republicans want from their Negroes" because he "so clearly doesn't have independent thoughts" and would "do what he's told" as a senator.[16] Mystal rejected an invitation to "break bread" with Walker until "he talks to the Senator from Georgia Raphael Warnock about the actual issues affecting Georgia voters.”[17]

Publications
  • Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution. New York: The New Press. 2022. ISBN 9781620976814. OCLC 1252960938.

References
  1. Obeidallah, Dean (March 23, 2022). "Elie Mystal: Our Constitution is "actually trash" — but the Supreme Court can be fixed". Salon. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  2. "Elie Mystal: Justice Correspondent". The Nation. December 10, 2018.
  3. Markay, Lachlan (March 6, 2022). "Progressives prep big spending for Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation". Axios. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  4. Brand, Rick (November 29, 2017). "Elie Mystal dead at 71; Suffolk legislator brought down by residency law". Newsday.
  5. "Elie Mystal, Author at Above the Law". Above the Law. Retrieved June 19, 2022.
  6. "Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution". The New Press.
  7. "Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers, March 27, 2022". The New York Times.
  8. Oprysko, Caitlin (December 9, 2022). "A peek under the hood at Demand Justice". POLITICO. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  9. Mystal, Elie (July 13, 2021). "My Black Generation is Fighting Like Hell to Stop the Whitelash". The Nation.
  10. Pengelly, Martin (June 30, 2022). "Biden backs exception to Senate filibuster to protect abortion access". The Guardian. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  11. Gillespie, Brandon (March 25, 2022). "Legal correspondent doubles down on claim US Constitution is 'actually trash'". Fox News. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  12. Schwartz, Ian. "Elie Mystal: Founding Fathers Were "Racist Misogynist Jerk Faces" Who Didn't Believe Women Had Any Rights". RealClearPolitics.
  13. Mystal, Elie. "I don't just call the founding fathers "racist, misogynist jerkfaces" on @JoyAnnReid , I actually wrote about those sick, rapist bastards in my book: Allow Me to Retort. In fact, in Chapter 16, I eviscerate Alito's trash argument before he makes it". Twitter.
  14. Martin, Roland. "Elie Mystal Says "The US Needs to Be Treated Like the Racist Pariah State It Is"".
  15. Mystal, Elie (June 3, 2021). "The Miseducation of White Children". The Nation.
  16. "Far-Left Commentator Slurs Black Republican Senate Candidate". Washington Free Beacon. August 1, 2022.
  17. "Elie Mystal: I'll talk to Herschel Walker after he talks to Georgia voters". MSNBC.com.
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