Richard Mack, a retired sheriff and current president of Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers (CSPOA),1<\/span><\/sup> is hard at work, educating sheriffs around the country to get them up to speed on the Constitutional rights of U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I was essentially clueless as to the importance of your local county sheriffs. I had no idea how crucial they are. Today, I view them as some of the most important elected officials we all have the opportunity to vote for. (Three states \u2014 Alaska, Hawaii and Connecticut \u2014 do not have sheriffs, so their laws are enforced by other officers such as marshals or deputy sheriffs.2<\/span><\/sup>)<\/p>\n In this interview, Mack details the\u00a0action<\/span>\u00a0steps you can take to make sure your sheriff is safeguarding your Constitutional rights and protecting your civil liberties against unlawful government overreach.<\/p>\n Ultimately, your local sheriff is in\u00a0charge<\/span>\u00a0of actually enforcing whatever rules and regulations are laid down by state lawmakers, your city or county councils,3<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0and executive orders from city mayors or governors. Contrary to what some people think, mayors and governors don\u2019t make laws \u2014 the state legislatures do that \u2014 but they can influence city and state legislation as well as invoke executive orders under certain circumstances.4<\/span><\/sup><\/p>\n Sometimes sheriffs and local and state police may be asked by their mayor or governor to enforce an executive order. However, some sheriffs may refuse to do that, if they believe the executive order is unconstitutional. For example, some Michigan5<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0and Texas6<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0sheriffs informed their governors they won\u2019t enforce mandatory mask orders since they aren\u2019t actual laws.<\/p>\n Knowing this, if you do not have a good sheriff who knows the Constitution and adheres to it, you could end up at the mercy of tyrannical government officials trying to create rules and orders outside the powers of your elected legislative officials.<\/p>\n During this pandemic, we\u2019ve seen quite a few mayors and governors implementing pandemic response mandates that violate the U.S. Constitution and infringe on civil liberties. The counterbalance to such overreaches is the local county sheriff. As explained by Mack:<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a crucial time in\u00a0American history<\/span>, and we actually have a peaceful and effective solution to it. The only thing that needs to happen is your local officials, especially your sheriff, keep [their] oath of office.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n That’s the only thing he has to do in order to effectuate the philosophy you just mentioned, and that is that the sheriff is here to protect your civil liberties, your God given rights.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n As the founding fathers put it in the Declaration of Independence, \u2018The laws of nature are nature’s God.\u2019 Either way, you don’t have to believe in God to appreciate this or to be a part of it. You don’t, because these are the rights you were born with.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mack is perhaps best known for suing the U.S. government over the Brady Bill, also known as the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act,7<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0signed into law by President Clinton in November 1993, which for the first time in U.S. history conscripted county sheriffs to enforce federal law.<\/p>\n \u201cCornell University did the best review8<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0of the case that I ever saw. If you want to look up the case, see Printz, Mac V. U.S.9<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0It’s the most amazing\u00a010th<\/span>\u00a0Amendment decision in the history of our country. It is so powerful,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Mack says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cJustice [Antonin] Scalia wrote\u00a0the decision<\/span>, and it went 10 times further than I ever dreamed. In fact, I never dreamed of even going to\u00a0the Supreme<\/span>\u00a0Court. I thought it would all be squashed and forgotten at the district level. But we went through the\u00a0district court<\/span>. Six other sheriffs joined me in this lawsuit. All of them won at the\u00a0district court\u00a0except the one in Texas.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I don’t know how you lose a\u00a010th\u00a0Amendment, Second Amendment case in Texas. People need to understand we sued on the\u00a010th\u00a0Amendment to protect the Second Amendment, yes, but also to protect state sovereignty. This is the one thing that really got to me the most.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I understand we’re always going to have people believing in gun control. I do not, because it’s against the Constitution. However, and I’m not a\u00a0big gun<\/span>\u00a0guy \u2014 I never even owned a gun until I was elected sheriff \u2026 But I am a freedom guy. That’s all this was about.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n And I said that the federal government cannot tell any sheriff what to do. Not me, not the sheriff in\u00a0Bangor<\/span>, Maine, or any sheriff across this country. They have no authority. They have no jurisdiction to tell us what to do. And that is where we won.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n It pushed the federal government back, but nobody knows about this decision. It’s very hidden. Nobody enforces it, and I’m trying to wake the country up to enforce (1) the Constitution, and (2) this decision that just reinforced the Constitution and the principle of Federalism.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Had it not been for Mack winning this lawsuit, sheriffs would not have had the legal ability to stand up against tyranny and protect Constitutional rights today. Hundreds of sheriffs have refused to enforce the often ridiculous and biased mandates issued by mayors and governors under the guise of protecting public health.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of our best Constitutional sheriffs is Mike Carpinelli out of Lewis County, New York, and he’s actually announced10<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0that he’s going to run against [New York governor Andrew] Cuomo \u2026<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n [Carpinelli] is a really solid Constitutional conservative \u2014 somebody who actually believes in freedom, who wants to put aside the socialist, communist takeover of our states and our country, and who really believes in individual liberty.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Another example is sheriff Sharon Wehrly in Nye County, Nevada. She is a lifetime member of the CSPOA. Pam Elliott in Edwards County, Texas, is also a Constitutional sheriff who has gone through CSPOA\u2019s training.<\/p>\n \u201cSheriffs know that when they come to our training, it will change America,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Mack says.\u00a0\u201cI’m going to tell everybody right now; communism and socialism are the antithesis of individual liberty. They do not allow for property rights.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n They do not allow for personal freedom. It’s all about the state mandating and controlling everything, including your own property. You don’t have property under those systems.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Scalia, like I said, went a lot further than I ever thought he would. He said this: \u2018But the Constitution protects us from our own best intentions.\u2019 You would think that quote right there would be enough to get everybody so excited about this case that they would go to our website and buy the reviews of the case.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I have this little pocket sized review, all the highlights,\u00a0all the best<\/span>\u00a0parts of the case, called \u2018The Victory for State Sovereignty.\u2019 You can get that at<\/em>\u00a0cspoa.org.\u00a0You should be passing them out to everyone so that they wake up to this.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n In his court decision, Scalia also talked about how the Constitution protects us from the crisis of the day. \u201cIt prevents the temptation to concentrate power in one location as an expedient solution to the crisis of the day,\u201d he said. And the COVID-19 pandemic is just that, Mack says. It\u2019s the crisis of the day.<\/p>\n \u201cHow many Americans die from obesity, heart disease and the effects of smoking? About a million a year? Yet we don’t make cigarette smoking against the law. Why don’t we make obesity against the law? It would be easy to put a little computer chip in everybody or just have everybody keep their federal obesity card.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n When you go to a Dairy Queen, they run it and go, \u2018Whoops. You can’t have a\u00a0Blizzard<\/span>\u00a0today. You had one last week\u2019 \u2026 I mean, aren’t they going to take care of us? \u2026 Isn’t this the same thing as them trying to \u2018protect us\u2019 and make sure that we’re all \u2018safe\u2019 by [telling us we must] stay \u2026 in our homes, social distance and wear masks in public?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n There’s no freedom of choice in any of that \u2026 My message is to all peace officers because we’ve already seen \u2026 where sheriffs and peace officers across the country are saying, \u2018I will not force people to do that.\u2019<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n It might be a good idea to wear a mask. I don’t know. But I do know that it has to be up to the individual because liberty is based on the choices that the individual makes, not that the government makes for us.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Even now we have some cities in America, like Englewood, Colorado, that have instituted a rule that if you’re not wearing a mask, it’s a $2,600 fine and a year in jail.11<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0At the same time, we’re releasing tens of thousands of convicted hardcore felons so, I guess, we can make room in our prisons for the non-mask wearers.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Among the most egregious overreaches we\u2019ve seen during this pandemic is the case of a supermarket security guard who shot a customer in the back for refusing to wear a mask. He is now charged with murder.12<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0Many of these mask mandates are in direct violation of the Constitution and shouldn\u2019t be enforced to begin with, let alone get killed over.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a question I ask on every program. Sheriff [Scott] Nichols in Franklin County, Maine, told his governor, \u2018We will not make our county a police state. We will not conduct ourselves like Nazi soldiers. We will follow the Constitution.\u2019 He was refusing \u2026 social engineering orders \u2026<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The question is, do you want the sheriff in Florida who arrested pastor Howard Brown [for holding church services in violation of stay-at-home order], or do you want the sheriff in Maine who said, \u2018We won’t conduct ourselves like that? We will still respect the rights of the people to make their own choices, even if it’s uncomfortable for other people.\u2019 Isn’t that what liberty is? \u2026<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n You would think we already made a law that freedom of religion would be the one principle that we would all agree on, yet we’re arresting people in this country, literally, just for going to church \u2026 This is so absurd.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, which sheriff do you want in your county? The one who will protect your liberty, still educate you as to how you should be careful, but then respect your right to choose for yourself?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I also submit that he actually protects you from other governments trying to arrest you. He protects you from that security guard. They’re not actually very well trained. Sometimes cops aren’t either, and we need to understand de-escalation, and that we don’t shoot somebody over a mask issue, which isn’t even a law.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The insanity just seems to get worse and worse every day, and I’m saying, let’s go back to American ideals. Let’s go back to the Constitution. And we literally train sheriffs and peace officers across this country to follow the Constitution, and to do that you have to know and understand the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Most of us would probably want a sheriff who will protect your civil liberties and personal freedoms. One area where your local sheriff might end up playing a crucial role is if they roll out forced vaccinations. Undoubtedly, that’s the next step in this COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n I believe the orders to wear masks everywhere we go is a preliminary step in that direction. Were rules or laws enacted saying you must get the COVID-19 vaccine or you\u2019ll be barred from various locations, your sheriff would be the one to either comply with such orders or refuse to enforce them.<\/p>\n The question then becomes, how do you ensure your local sheriff understands and protects your rights under the Constitution? You basically have two options here. Either vote a Constitutional sheriff in, or educate the one you have.<\/p>\n \u201cWe the people need to be involved in that process. Remember, [Thomas] Jefferson said the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. And that’s one place where we have failed in this country,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Mack says.\u00a0\u201cWe the people have trusted government to take care of liberty. Big mistake.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n We were told to never do that. Never trust. I don’t care if it’s your brother that’s in office, never trust anybody in government, including me. Check on me. Always be checking and see what I’m doing, and your public officials should be making that very transparent. This is what I believe. This is what I’m doing.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mack urges everyone to join the CSPOA \u2014 The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. Its purpose is to create a partnership between the people, the sheriff and the local law enforcement chiefs. I encourage you to join me in supporting this worthy organization.<\/p>\n Next, you need to vet your candidates. There are just under 3,100 sheriffs in the U.S., and as in all other professions, some are better educated and informed than others. In the case of sheriffs, it\u2019s imperative that they understand, and vow to uphold, the Constitution of the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cBe friendly, be tactful, but you need to ask every sheriff candidate running right now if he will be a Constitutional sheriff,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Mack says.\u00a0\u201cYou should be able to find that out with one quick phone call, or you can look at their history \u2026<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n They need to hear from you, and they need to know you’re concerned about this issue. It’s great that you go to them and say, \u2018Sheriff, I’m a member of the CSPOA. I’m on the Constitutional Sheriff\u2019s Posse\u2019 \u2026 If a sheriff hears from 10 of his constituents, he’ll say hundreds of people are calling. They can’t ignore you \u2026<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Everybody needs to be a member of the CSPOA. It’s the only one out there doing this, and believe me, it’s a peaceful and effective solution that is working.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n It\u2019s important to realize the CSPOA is the only organization of its kind and helps educate sheriffs all around the country. Joining the CSPOA is really one of the most highly leveraged investments you could make to secure your personal liberties.<\/p>\nYour Sheriff Is the One Protecting Your Constitutional Rights<\/h2>\n
The Brady Bill<\/h2>\n
The Constitution Protects Us From Our Best Intentions<\/h2>\n
The Constitution Protects Us From the Crisis of the Day<\/h2>\n
Americans Jailed and Shot Over Unconstitutional Rules<\/h2>\n
How Do You Get a Constitutional Sheriff in Your County?<\/h2>\n
Why Join the CSPOA?<\/h2>\n
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