The highest law in the land How the unchecked power of sheriffs threatens democracy

In this era of high anxiety, intense scrutiny, and increasing skirmishes over the mechanisms--indeed, the very nature--of free and fair elections, there is one area of democracy that gets little attention: the office of county sheriff. That oversight ends with Pishko's f irst book. "America's roughly three thousand sheriffs exist in every state except Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, and Rhode Island," writes Pishko, a journalist and Harvard-trained lawyer, "and they are almost all democratically elected by county." This means sheriffs are accountable to only to the people, providing them necessary freedom to discharge their duties, which can be extensive. It also makes them untouchable and in some cases, tyrannical. Pishko's main concern is the "constitutional sheriff," or Posse Comitatus, movement, whose adherents argue that the county, not federal or state governments, should control all land within its borders. The county sheriff, therefore, should be the ultimate law-enforcement entity, with the power and the duty to reject all other authorities. The dangerous implications of this idea animate Pishko's sober, fascinating analysis.

A damning exposé of the rise of "constitutional sheriffs," a law unto themselves. Read investigative journalist Pishko's carefully reported history, and you'll appreciate how spot-on Jon Hamm's evilly unlawful lawman Roy Tillman was in the 2023-24 season of the dramaFargo. One of Pishko's archetypes is Arizona sheriff Mark Lamb, who proclaims to his constituents, "Sheriffs are the last line of defense in this country. We don't work for anybody but you." But that's not really true: whether directly or not, and whether knowingly or not, he works for a network of extremist right-wing groups, most based in the West and grounded in the John Birch Society and its offshoots, "who all believed that the county sheriff was the only legitimate law enforcement." Ironically, Pishko adds, these groups "were often in conflict with law enforcement on federal, state, and local levels"; they brought us Waco, the Cliven Bundy ranch standoff, Ruby Ridge, and other such confrontations, all born of an "originalist" reading of the Constitution that holds that the county is the fundamental building block of American political organization and that the sheriff is the moral equivalent of its feudal lord. The movement has lately been fueled by the populist rage that whirls around in the Republican Party of Donald Trump. Pishko reports that sheriffs do indeed have those lordly powers, and in most instances they report to no one. Although the "constitutional sheriffs" are a minority, sheriffs lean to the right almost everywhere, especially in the West, and are drawn to Trumpism because they "sympathized with [Trump's] overt opposition to immigration, his dalliance with white supremacists, and his stalwart defense of the Second Amendment," all red-meat issues. Pishko's proposed remedy is controversial but well defended: "Eliminate the institution altogether." A fluent, well-reasoned contribution to the movement to reform policing in America. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.