system for a decade, with a focus on the political power of sheriffs since 2016. In addition to her newsletter, Posse Comitatus, her writings have been featured in The New York Times, Politico, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, The Appeal, Slate, and Democracy Docket. She has been awarded journalism fellowships from the Pulitzer Center and Type Investigations and was a 2022 New America Fellow. A longtime Texas resident, she currently lives with her family in North Carolina.
Pishko's new book is The Highest Law in the Land: How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy.
At Lit Hub she tagged ten books for understanding the far right “Constitutional Sheriff” movement, including:
Daniel Levitas, The Terrorist Next DoorRead about the other entries on the list.
Levitas, a writer, researcher, and lawyer, spent eight years in the Midwest researching right-wing efforts to recruit rural residents in the 1980s. His book focuses on a man named William Potter Gale, a racist and antisemite, who began the Posse Comitatus movement, which believed that the sheriff was the only rightful law enforcement officer in the country.
Drawing on Gale’s speeches and writings as well as multiple investigations into far-right violence, Levitas draws a picture of a primarily rural far -right movement they preyed upon people experiencing genuine social upheaval.
--Marshal Zeringue
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