Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law

Brilliant Examination - Yet Outdated By The Author's Day Job Just Before Publication. Define irony. One sense may be writing a book wherein you detail how one Supreme Court decision in particular a few decades ago allowed for an exponential growth in the number of laws and regulations Americans must abide by... and then just a handful of weeks before publication of the book you made this point in, joining with five of your eight colleagues in your day job in announcing that you collectively have... *over ruled*... that very prior SCOTUS decision in question. One might consider that a form of irony.

Beyond the discussion of Chevron though, Gorsuch and apparent longtime assistant Nitze do a truly admirable job here of showing just how much the laws and other edicts with force of law of the United States have grown in just the last few decades alone, primarily at the National level, but with brief examinations of the volume of State and local laws as well. Various case studies are used to illustrate various ways in which the explosion has occurred and how it has harmed every day working class Americans of nearly any imaginable stripe, and showing how many Americans can be in violation of some rule or regulation... and not even know it until cops raid their house with guns drawn in order to kidnap these "perpetrators".

Indeed, some of the cases are quite sobering and harrowing indeed, including the one that opens the book - that of a Florida fisherman suddenly accused of tampering with evidence... due to a law that passed as a result of the Enron scandal. In other cases, Gorsuch and Nitze show various other "offenses", including at least a few - such as civil asset forfeiture and occupational licensing - that will be on Gorsuch's desk in his day job over the next couple of years, thanks in large part to the efforts of groups such as the Institute for Justice, which actively seeks to combat the very problem Gorsuch details in this book.

One thing that I can't speak to that I normally do in this space is the length of the bibliography, as I read the Audible edition of this book on my way back home to Jacksonville, FL from my homeland north of Atlanta, GA yesterday. (Though I *can* note, from that, that it can easily be read at 1.5x speed on a 7 ish hr drive. ;) )

Truly both a well written and genuinely important book for all Americans to read.

Very much recommended.