A young man asked me the question about the law. He said, “Allan, can I do this and that in my state?”
I did not answer the question.
I did not find him a lawyer.
I sent him to his county law library to look it up himself.
If you have never been to your county law library, it is certainly a place to know.
Why is it a place to know?
Well, for exactly the reason I sent him there. His tone before entering that library was one of uncertainty and confusion.
His tone after leaving that library was like something I had never before heard from him — he suddenly recognized that the law was knowable, not just a mysterious concept handed down from on high by a bureaucrat.
Here’s what I told him and here’s what I would tell you.
And I bet this is stuff you’ve never been told before.
You may not have all the world’s problems sorted out after leaving there, but I can tell you this much — you are going to feel such a sense of ability to comprehend and even navigate the system after leaving there.
Approach it with the right attitude and it will have such an impact on your sense of ability over a legal question and your attitude with which you approach legal questions.
1.)Get a tour — I would recommend going there and asking the person working if he could give you a quick tour.
2.)Do quick research — After your tour, do your best to answer the question of who can do this and that in your state.
3.)Plan for 2 hours, but even 15 minutes will do — Probably two hours would be a good chunk of time to schedule for, but I think 15 minutes will even be enough for you to just get your feet wet, because it is at least good for you to know that such a resource exists, and it is good for you to know where it is and who works there and what they can do for you.
4.)Something will change in you — Having this experience forever changes how you respond when someone quotes the law to you. Suddenly the law is not amorphous and scary. The law is concrete and knowable. I’m not claiming the laws are perfect, or even good; I’m just claiming they are concrete and knowable. That means you are way more likely to respond to someone trying to boss you around by calmly stating, “Okay, please get me a copy of that policy. I’d love to have a closer look.”
5.) A few books, a computer, and an interested librarian mean so much — It might be a total dud of a library and a wasted visit. But my guess is that it will be good and you will make it an excellent use of time. Many county law librarians are nerds for the law and love helping people.
6.)This single visit usually puts you in the 1% — In those two hours you are going to have exceeded 99% of your law abiding peers in their understanding of the legal system.
7.)You need to write it down — Bring notebook and pen with you to take notes on this. Make it your notebook for this project. If you don’t have a notebook, get one from the dollar store.
8.)You really need to write it down — Write down EVERYTHING you learn and write down everywhere you get it from so that you can easily come back and find it.
9.)What you show by going there — Great job owning the situation and saying “I’m going to get to the bottom of this” and good attitude saying “I don’t have all the answers but I’m going to keep looking”
10.)Almost every elected official lacks the two things you just show by walking into a law library to address a legal question: ownership of a problem and humbleness. They usually have the opposite: No sense of responsibility over a problem, combined with a huge ego.
This resource — the county law library — goes a long way.
The behaviors of government these past few years have been the exact opposite — convincing people the law is unknowable. They want you to think bureaucrats can come up with anything they feel like and by doing so get to lord over our lives.
And the truth is, the laws can be pretty terrible, but if you take time to know the laws that others claim apply to you, the law is not usually as terrible as a whiner or a complainer would make it out to be.
Which is a problem with mid-wits. They often know enough about the law to give you bad advice and discourage you. You can combat that by actually holding the law in your hand and digging in. Doing so will help you see, oftentimes, that a given law does not even apply to you.
Even smaller government publications like Reason magazine like to encourage opinions along the lines of the law being unknowable. They complain about how many laws there are, and how no one can do anything about it.
While there are limitations to how far an individual can go, the truth is that it often matters in court when you have the law on your side, and while many government lawyers you will face in court may be adept at are using the system, capable and creative legal researchers they often are not.
And if you can be crafty in your research, you never even need to go to court in many situations. Pointing to the law can go a long way. But I’m not even trying to convince you to point to the law. I’m just trying to convince you of this — step foot in your county law library, spend two hours poking around, and you will get so much benefit from knowing that resource.
An amazing group of people — Project Pureblood has closed for the time being. Its sister project — The Converts — has not yet launched and remains open this week. Prices go up after midnight tonight. It is a group of can-do people who are getting together to stand against the health mandates in their own lives and to help others do the same.
It is a group of people who have the attitude it takes to unreasonably and optimistically take on the world and win.
Those are the kind of people I want to surround myself with. And that is one reason I selfishly started The Converts — to have more access to more positive, hard hitting, can-do, people.
If that describes you, or if you want that same access to that kind of group. Now is the time to join.
Tap here to join "The Converts."
Allan Stevo
MASKs in NJ : In my medical office in NJ we are STILL under governors executive orders to wear face diapers. I have not worn mine since march. Everyone else in the office the staff and my three other partners and other doctors are wearing masks all day long. I just won’t wear mine. And people have left me alone. I think because in their hearts They Know they don’t work and they’re completely useless. Sometimes I will see a patient, and the patient will ask me should I takeoff my mask. And I say “do what makes you comfortable“ I often work with an assistant in the exam room with me who scribes for me on our computer system. A few of my staff are still complete Covid psychotics. And one of them ratted me out to one of my own medical partners. And my medical partner just wrote me this email: ___________________________ “Given the mask mandates for health care facilities, please refrain from telling patients to take their masks off. We are already being lenient in your non mask wearing. However, some of the techs feel uncomfortable in patients not having their masks and have reported this to management so please try to have patients follow the rules set forth by the DOH. This is not a discussion about the effectiveness or right to choose. This is OUR office policy as we are following guidelines set forth until this changes. I don't particularly want to lose valuable staff which is hard to come by as well as have them report us and then have to deal with that” ________________________ Such is the state of medical care today in northern NJ 😞