Tim Marchman: As you write, this is rooted in white supremacist beliefs. Can you unpack that a little?
David Gilbert: It is, and it can be traced back to the late ’60s and early ’70s to a movement called Posse Comitatus, which was founded, they say, by a guy named William Potter Gale. At the time he was a minister of this militant anti-Semitic white nationalist quasi-religion, more or less known as Christian Identity. He believed that sheriffs were protectors of citizens and that they had the power to summon militias and that they should be enshrined in law as the ultimate power to enforce the law anywhere in the country. We have seen over the years that these Constitutional or far-right Sheriffs, no matter what they have done in terms of the extreme actions that they have taken, do have a base of supporters in their locality or in their county that believe in what what they are doing, they will be voted back into office for decades.
Tim Marchman: The public’s mandate is powerful enough, but some of these sheriffs cite a higher authority source. They say their power derives from God, which seems quite unconstitutional given the separation of church and state in the United States. How do you respond to that?
David Gilbert: Well, they respond by saying that the separation of church and state is not something that really exists. They say that, again, this is a misunderstanding of the Constitution, and that the entire Constitutional Sheriff movement is deeply imbued with Christian nationalist beliefs and ideology. Most of the constitutional marshals I have spoken to over the past six months are eager to see America return to being a nation rooted in Christianity, where Christianity is at the center of every aspect of life, whether law enforcement or education or government or culture. They believe that in that society, because they believe they got their power from God, they will be the most powerful law enforcement people in the entire country.
Tim Marchman: Under this constitutional order as they understand it, is there a role for constitutional governors or constitutional mayors, or are these powers exclusive to sheriffs?
David Gilbert: They seem to believe that these powers are exclusive to sheriffs. In all the time I’ve been covering this, I’ve never heard any of them talk about other figures, whether in government or law enforcement, who would have sheriff-like powers. Again, this brings us to the idea that this is somehow enshrined in the Constitution. Like we said, it’s not, but in their belief system, in their ideology, they can track the sheriff. It is one of the oldest police offices in the world. It goes back to the United Kingdom, where the sheriff carried out the orders of the local magistrates and collected taxes and things like that. It has obviously been exported from England to the United States and has persisted since the beginning of the American nation. They believe that is key to giving them the power that no one else in the US has because, at the local level, they are there to protect their citizens, and the citizens are the ones who elect them and therefore that is their duty . Even if other positions, such as governor, are elected by the people, they do not seem to believe that that position should have a similar type of constitutional protection.