Published: Goldendale Sentinel, July 2022
What's wrong with being a constitutional sheriff? Decide for yourself:
The “constitutional sheriff” notion is tied to the “county supremacy movement.” This posits the county, not the state or federal government, should control all county land, and the county sheriff is the ultimate law enforcement authority in the U.S. This idea was pioneered circa 1970 by William Potter Gale, a white supremacist involved with Aryan Nations, Christian Identity, and the Posse Comitatus (origins associated with 1878 Posse Comitatus Act and Jim Crow).
What is a “constitutional sheriff”? The American Police Officers Alliance (APOA) defines “constitutional sheriff” here.
Sheriff Songer was honored by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association as the Constitutional Sheriff of the Year in 2019.
Consistent with this award, Songer’s actions and public statements have unequivocally demonstrated he uses his elected position to choose which laws, established by the will of the people, he will enforce and which he will ignore.
Constitutional sheriffs are neither constitutional scholars, lawyers, nor authorized by congress to designate laws unconstitutional; but they are, nonetheless, self-appointed arbiters of legislative authority, which has no grounding in federal or state laws.
“They [constitutional sheriffs] have no authority, not under their state constitutions or implementing statutes to decide what’s constitutional and what’s not constitutional. That’s what courts have the authority to do, not sheriffs,”—Mary McCord, Constitutional scholar at Georgetown University
Constitutional sheriffs are antithetical to our system of government, the U.S. Constitution, and every state constitution. At best, constitutional sheriffs are ignorant of how our state and federal governments function under the rule of law. At worst, they are hypocrites or anarchists or fascists or combination thereof.
In any case, constitutional sheriff’s work to weaken our rights and protections under the law, not to protect all of them.
Constitutional sheriffs and Elections, Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, Georgetown Law, 2022 (with many citations regarding constitutional sheriffs)
A right-wing sheriffs group that challenges federal law is gaining acceptance around the country, Associated Press, 2022