The Nonsense Factory: The Making and Breaking of the American Legal System

by Bruce Cannon Gibney Narrated by Matt Kugler

Overview

A withering and witty examination of how the American legal system, burdened by complexity and untrammeled growth, fails Americans and threatens the rule of law itself, by the acclaimed author of A Generation of Sociopaths.

Our trial courts conduct hardly any trials, our correctional systems do not correct, and the rise of mandated arbitration has ushered in a shadowy system of privatized "justice." Meanwhile, our legislators can't even follow their own rules for making rules, while the rule of law mutates into a perpetual state of emergency. The legal system is becoming an incomprehensible farce. How did this happen?

In The Nonsense Factory, Bruce Cannon Gibney shows that over the past seventy years, the legal system has dangerously confused quantity with quality and might with legitimacy. As the law bloats into chaos, it staggers on only by excusing itself from the very commands it insists that we obey, leaving Americans at the mercy of arbitrary power. By examining the system as a whole, Gibney shows that the tragedies often portrayed as isolated mistakes or the work of bad actors -- police misconduct, prosecutorial overreach, and the outrages of imperial presidencies -- are really the inevitable consequences of law's descent into lawlessness.

The first book to deliver a lucid, comprehensive overview of the entire legal system, from the grandeur of Constitutional theory to the squalid workings of Congress, The Nonsense Factory provides a deeply researched and witty examination of America's state of legal absurdity, concluding with sensible options for reform.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Law schools seeking a good overview could save themselves the trouble and just assign entering students [The Nonsense Factory].... A plain-English "wide-angle critique" of the legal system... Ambitious.... Non-lawyers and many attorneys, too, will certainly have a better sense of what ails our justice system after reading this book."— Washington Post

"The Nonsense Factory is a provocative polemic on the sorry state of American law. Whether you chiefly blame the Supreme Court or Congress or law professors or We The People ourselves—and whether or not you buy into every count of his indictment—Gibney's book raises serious questions about how we govern ourselves."—David A. Kaplan, author of The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside the Supreme Court's Assault on the Constitution

"A diligent, carefully considered overview of the law and its many facets.... Gibney is an insurrectionist with a heavy mind but a light heart.... His overarching intellectual project is a deeply admirable, and indeed, a patriotic one. He's willing to take a little heat to get some new ideas out there, and he's willing to make a few enemies in the process. By applying his deeply agile mind to the seemingly intractable obstacles of our democracy, he implicitly and crucially demonstrates the belief that real solutions exist."— Lawyers, Guns, and Money

"A keen, lively deconstruction of the American legal system's seemingly countless flaws."
—Kirkus Reviews

"Gibney is ... often funny, and his criticisms are serious, well-argued, and provocative."—Publishers Weekly

"Gibney (A Generation of Sociopaths) boldly declares that these chaotic times have been long-developing in the legal realm.... A timely investigation of the 'Imperial Presidency' considers the history and dangers of executive power. Ultimately, Gibney calls for structural reform and corrective actions.... Civic-minded readers .... will enjoy this ambitious and wry polemic on America's legal system."—Library Journal

"Monumental and hugely entertaining...smart, funny, incisive...."—Good Law Bad Law podcast with Aaron Freiwald

"[A] sweeping new study of America's legal system."—Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe

"Really interesting book... stirring the pot."
—The Young Turks

Kirkus Reviews

2019-03-03

A sweeping, vituperative examination of how the United States, a nation that prides itself on the rule of law, has devolved into an essentially lawless country.

"It's not only possible, but likely, that all three branches of government are controlled by criminals," writes Gibney (A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America, 2017), a former lawyer who is now a venture capitalist. "At a minimum, it cannot be proved otherwise, for the simple reason that no one truly knows what the criminal laws of the United States contain. The U.S. Department of Justice, charged with enforcing federal criminal law, can't even count the number of criminal provisions." Consequently, most nonlawyer citizens—and even many lawyers—cannot know precisely when they have crossed the line into criminal activity. In the early portion of his outside-the-box yet cohesive diatribe, the author constructs a philosophical foundation for his thesis. Then, chapter by chapter, he eviscerates the American criminal justice system, including police, prosecutors, public defenders, private defense attorneys, law professors, and judges. Gibney also focuses his penetrating gaze on the maze of noncriminal law, slamming arbitrary presidential powers, executive branch rule-making, trial and appellate courts, and the privatized proceedings known as arbitration. Regarding the presidency, he writes, "the greater executive power becomes, the larger the possibility for error. After decades of expansion, the presidency has become a near-impossible job, reposed in one beleaguered and often unstable person." Throughout the readable text, the author illustrates his criticisms by skillfully employing relevant analogies and metaphors, and his humor is subtle and mostly effective. Defenders of the alleged rule of law in the U.S. often point to the concept of American exceptionalism; Gibney effectively attacks this idea with examples showing how laws are administered more clearly in other nations. At times, the book is eerily timely, as when the author discusses alleged national emergencies invoked by occupants of the White House.

A keen, lively deconstruction of the American legal system's seemingly countless flaws.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170063482
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	05/14/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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