Unwilling to wait for election results to be tallied in November, some far-rightists are already making plans for another insurrection. One effort emerging in Florida is inspired by a founding member of one of the groups that led the January 6th insurrection and the writings of an anti-abortion terror promoter.
“The culmination of all the work we will have done in each sphere of influence to create the momentum we need to mobilize ‘We the People’ to reestablish our Constitutional Republic,” signals a document the IREHR research team has uncovered outlining plans to target sheriffs, county commissioners, and supervisors of elections. The plan: “Take back the states, one constitutional sheriff at a time.”
The effort has fused far-right fascination with the county sheriff, anti-immigrant sentiment, COVID denial, and election denial into a plan for the next insurrection. Instead of a January 6th-style centralized mass insurrection, these Florida activists developed a blueprint for a county-by-county-style revolt. They hope it becomes a national model for sustained insurrection, “the template for the rest of the country to follow.”[1]
A Posse in Freedom’s Clothing
The effort is advertised under the name Florida Foundation for Freedom, though no corporate record is available for any such organization in the state. Behind the scenes, the project is led by the far-right Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA).
CSPOA is a far-right pro-paramilitary organization that promotes spurious ideas about policing derived from the racist, antisemitic, and violent Posse Comitatus movement. The group was founded by former Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack—a founding board member of the insurrectionist paramilitary group, the Oath Keepers. Current CSPOA CEO Sam Bushman has a long history of promoting white nationalism on his radio program.
The group hinted at some of their Florida plans during a March 12, 2024, interview with new CSPOA Florida state director Bill Mitchell on Liberty Roundtable, the radio program of white nationalism promoter and CSPOA CEO Sam Bushman.[2]
“What I’m working on is working on, from a county by county, sheriff by sheriff basis, is finding out who in Florida is amenable to the idea of what I would call a constitutional sanctuary county and how we start to put in ordinances or we put in resolutions that back the constitution again prior to the 2024 election in case that there tends to be again, government overreach like that happened during COVID and things like that, that disrupted the 2020 election.”[3]
Two months after the Liberty Roundtable interview, Mitchell started circulating a detailed 7-page plan for insurrection. The “180 Day Plan” starts in Florida but is designed to spread nationwide.
According to the document,
“The plan of action is designed to, through Constitutional Law, reestablish our Constitutional Republic and nullify all unconstitutional acts, including executive orders, legislation, proclamations, rules, regulations, statutes, supreme court decisions, treaties and other acts that have been systematically used to usurp our God given [sic] constitutional rights.”
Through its actions, the group thinks it can “nullify” virtually anything—from local statutes to international treaties—it doesn’t like. The plan even suggests that it can effectively cancel Supreme Court decisions with which it disagrees.
The 180 Day Plan memo explains,
“In this phase we will contact grassroots, constitutionally conservative groups, to partner with us as we present the message of the BILL OF RIGHTS CONSTITUTIONAL SANCTUARY COUNTY. This effort is designed to reestablish [sic] the county as the “Lessor Magistrate”, [sic] putting the state and federal governments on notice that unconstitutional governmental overreach, of any kind, will not be tolerated.”
Nullification is most widely known as a legal theory that a state (not a county, sheriff, or individual) has the right to invalidate any federal laws that they deem unconstitutional. It has often been associated with attempts to undermine human rights, including defending chattel slavery, erasing treaty rights, and blocking school desegregation efforts.[4]
Not CSPOA’s first brush with such ideas and aims, CEO Sam Bushman has also allied his cause with the League of the South, a staunchly antisemitic white nationalist group that seeks to secede from the U.S. and form a white ethno-state in the South. Undergirding this goal, the League of the South holds that “individual States have constitutional rights of nullification, interposition, and secession.”[5]
The CSPOA plan usurps the constitutional authority of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. It replaces our federalist system with “Bill of Rights Constitutional Sanctuary Counties.”
What is a Bill of Rights Constitutional Sanctuary County? According to Mitchell,
“A BILL OF RIGHTS CONSTITUTIONAL SANCTUARY COUNTY is a county that, as described in “The Doctrine of the Lessor Magistrates [sic] (Matthew J. Trewhella), interposes “The Lessor Magistrate” [sic] to protect all its residents from state or federal governmental encroachment, upon the God given [sic] rights and privileges of its citizens, that are guaranteed and protected by our original Constitution and Bill of Rights.”[6]
The wording of Mitchell’s pitch for Constitutional Sanctuary Counties betrays two concerning issues. The “Constitution” of these Sanctuary Counties isn’t today’s Constitution. Mitchell uses an old far-right trick by situating their ideal as “our original Constitution and Bill of Rights.” By harkening back to an “Organic” 1791 version of the Constitution, the CSPOA plan for counties sneakily eliminates things like the post-Civil War Amendments abolishing slavery, women’s suffrage, and other democracy-expanding Amendments.
Three Legs of The Lesser Magistrate
From the beginning, CSPOA recruitment efforts have focused on recruiting sheriffs. After being repeatedly exposed, those efforts have stalled. Ever opportunistic, the group has adapted to circumstances on the ground.
The new plan to create Constitutional Sanctuary Counties involves having local Posses recruit sheriffs, county commissioners, and supervisors of elections to the cause of nullifying rules, laws, and even election results.
“Our goal, through our united call to action and mobilization, is to have the three legs (County Board of Commissioners, Supervisor of Elections and County Sheriff) of the BILL OF RIGHTS CONSTITUTIONAL SANCTUARY COUNTY, in place across Florida and be the template for the rest of the country to follow. In this way we will demonstrate how the three legs, acting as the “Lessor Magistrate”, can take action to restore our nation by interposing against unconstitutional governmental overreach and by holding all elected officials accountable for their actions, according to the sacred trust they assumed when they took their oath of office. They took this oath in order to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic.”
Sheriffs have always been the core. The group has been recruiting county commissioners to pass similar CSPOA-backed ordinances for years in places like Lander and Elko Counties in Nevada. Adding supervisors of elections to the target list, however, is a new twist.
The opening paragraph of The 180-Day Plan weaves election denial conspiracy-mongering into its statement that the “very structure of the election process is compromised.”[7] Control the supervisors, control the process.
Allegations of voter fraud and stolen elections have surpassed COVID denial as the driving conspiracy for CSPOA, as reflected in the core themes of the 2022 and 2024 Las Vegas CSPOA conferences. The group puts conspiracies into action. For instance, CSPOA board member Barry County, MI Sheriff Dar Leaf was an unindicted co-conspirator in a 2020 election machine tampering case.
Despite the claim that the Foundation for Freedom is a nonprofit organization, the 180 Day Plan also includes an explicit electoral component: “The signing of these endorsements or failure to do so can be used as an election platform given many Elected Officials are up for reelection in 2024.”[8]
Insurrection of the Lesser Magistrates
“The Doctrine of the Lessor [sic] Magistrates (Matthew J. Trewhella), interposes “The Lessor Magistrate” to protect all its residents from state or federal governmental encroachment, upon the God given [sic] rights and privileges of its citizens, that are guaranteed and protected by our original Constitution and Bill of Rights.” – 180 Day Plan
Florida CSPOA leader Bill Mitchell’s pitch for Constitutional Sanctuary Counties fully embraces the political violence-promoting work of Christian nationalist Matt Trewhella. His self-published 2013 book, The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates, relies on a theory developed by 16th-century Calvinists seeking holy justification for fighting political oppression amid the religious wars of the Protestant Reformation.[9] Today, Trewhella argues, government officials have a divine “right and duty” to defy any laws, policies, or court opinions that violate “the law of God,” even violently resisting the government if necessary, noting in his book that there are times when men “must redden their swords.”
In fact, the CSPOA Plan references Trewhella’s Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates four times, and it has become a common theme in presentations promoting the efforts. Trewhella’s Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate provides a justification for a Christian nationalist revolution spearheaded by adherents occupying lower levels of government, such as sheriffs, county and city officials, and state legislators.
Trewhella, who has supported the murder of abortion providers, was an early proponent of forming Christian militias. He has also written that “sodomites should be executed as God legislated in his law.”[10]
Trewhella’s The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates is a call for local officials to wage violence against government.
“There comes a time when the lesser magistrates must move beyond mere squabbling with the higher authority. There comes a time when men must cross swords. The lesser magistrates provide the best opportunity for this to be accomplished bloodlessly, but history has proven there are times when they must redden their swords.”[11]
Trewhella’s book also portends a military coup to interpose against government action he doesn’t like, like gay marriage and women’s reproductive freedom.
“If Congress and the President continue to walk down this dark road of rebellion and anarchy, the military may someday have to rise up and interpose, as they have a long and prestigious history of doing. They may have to declare to our civil magistrates what Roman General Pompey stated to the magistrates of Messana – “Stop quoting laws to us, we carry swords.”[12]
Trewhella’s vocal support for the murderers of abortion providers and his call for the execution of members of the LGBTQIA+ community provide a gruesome picture of how a Constitutional Sanctuary guided the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates would function.
Interposition and Insurrection
The CSPOA Plan also specifically references Trewhella’s call for “interposition” multiple times. Closely associated with nullification, interposition is the act of blocking enforcement of a law duly legislated in accordance with the procedures outlined in the Constitution—physically standing against federal, state, and local law enforcement officers.
At previous CSPOA events, leaders have discussed arresting the governor or other elected officials who don’t support their view of the Constitution as a type of interposition.
The plan calls for issuing a “Notification of Specific Actions” to County Sheriffs, County Commissioners, and Supervisors of Elections. The goal is to have sheriffs, commissioners, and supervisors of elections do their bidding. If they don’t take the actions they demand, they will “face removal from office for cause.”
“This is where, over the next 60 days, we send our elected officials the “We the People 2, Notifications of Specific Actions” they will need to take or face removal from office for cause.”[13]
The CSPOA 180 Day Plan does not explicitly detail how “removal” would happen. There is no mention of using the democratic process available in 39 states, including Florida, to recall local elected officials.[14] A recall vote of these officeholders is possible in only 20 of Florida’s 67 counties, so that’s not an option for most of the state.[15]
Rather than removing local elected officials by the ballot, during the March interview with Bushman, Florida CSPOA leader Bill Mitchell revealed they’d use a far-right classic from the original Posse Comitatus days—vigilante “citizen grand juries.”
“And this is one of the things that we’re also working on is the concept of the citizen’s grand jury. Because when you’re not having a judiciary that’s responsive to the Constitution, how do you deal with that? How do you basically hold the judiciary accountable? And a lot of the different legislative pieces that are being put forward to institute citizens grand juries that have that kind of teeth and say, listen, if you are a prosecutor, if you have had something brought to you that shows the evidence that there should be a grand jury impaneled and that the grand jury has given you the indictment that you must prosecute or you’re going to be removed from office and there will be another person hired to do your job at the county’s expense.”[16]
There are no provisions for a citizen grand jury in Florida. These would seemingly be extra-judicial tribunals. Envision a group of CSPOA supporters holding a phony show trial of unsupportive local officials, finding them “guilty” of “treason” or other trumped-up charges, then removing the officials (by force) and inflicting punishment.
In short, CSPOA plans to use its Posse to threaten local elected officials to threaten the feds. If local officials refuse, they’ll be removed by allied sheriffs or Posse-led citizen grand juries. The action isn’t as visually arresting as storming the Capitol, but it’s still an insurrectionary attempt to use force to overthrow the will of the people.
Coming Soon: the “Large Scale Event”
According to the plan, activity intensity will increase in phase three, “Day 120 Large Scale Event & Call to Action.” Under the Foundation for Freedom umbrella, CSPOA leaders have scheduled a two-day conference at Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel in Orlando on September 6-7, 2024.
In a promotional video, Richard Mack predicted, “We’re going to have hundreds of sheriffs, hundreds of county commissioners, and thousands of you, and we’re gonna be meeting to take back America.”
If past performance is an indicator, it’s doubtful that attendance will approach Mack’s hyperbolic estimates. However, the scheduled lineup of speakers includes two current Florida elected officials, Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers and Collier County Commissioner Chris Hall.
It also features several speakers familiar to the CSPOA world: CSPOA founder Richard Mack; CSPOA board member and Indiana Commissioner Brad Rogers; CSPOA supporters from New Mexico, Sheriff Glenn Hamilton and Caleb Cooper.
John Birch Society/Epoch Times essayist Alex Newman is also scheduled to speak at the Orlando event. At the CSPOA conference in Las Vegas earlier this year, Newman gave a keynote presentation on Trewhella’s “Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates.” He even encouraged attendees to provide copies of Trewhella’s book to local officials.
The remaining speakers are lesser-known far-right figures, including tax protestor Joe Banister; confessed fraudster and failed Gilbert, Arizona mayoral candidate Shane Krauser; Kristina S. Heuser, an affiliated attorney with the Christian nationalist Alliance Defending Freedom; voter suppression activist Kris Jurski of The People’s Audit; Ben Peterson of Engage Your Destiny, an effort to advance Christianity in the military; COVID denier Dr. John Littell; and retired firefighter running for Palm Springs County, Florida Commissioner, John Fischer.
They have also invited MyPillow election denier Mike Lindell and Trump’s former Acting Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tom Holman.
Sponsors for the September 6-7 conference include the Koch-backed Tea Party group Americans for Prosperity; Republican groups, the Florida Republican Assembly and the Republican Liberty Caucus; Tax protest group Freedom Law School; Election denial groups, United Sovereign Americans and Pinellas Watchdogs; the anti-public education group Florida Citizens Alliance; and supplement monger Global Healing.
Resurrecting the Posse
The first two phases of the 180 Day Plan, dedicated to “Building the Base” and “Sphere of Influence Teams,” focus on expanding CSPOA’s influence with local groups and elected officials in Florida. During a recent training session, Mitchell clarified that “the base” consisted of organizing local County Posses.[17] He also explained that his Posses were not tied to a sheriff’s department but standalone entities linked to CSPOA.
CSPOA founder Richard Mack and Florida director Mitchell have barnstormed the state, holding at least a dozen events since May. They collaborated with several local groups, including the Pinellas Watchdogs, Patriots for America, Heart of Florida Republican Women, Trump Republican Assembly Flagler County, and several chapters of the Florida Republican Assembly.
| Date | Sponsor | City | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 5, 2024 | Save America Conference | Tampa | Florida |
| May 2, 2024 | Republican Women SW Volusia Co | DeBary | Florida |
| May 6, 2024 | Northeast Florida Duval County | Jacksonville | Florida |
| May 7, 2024 | Pinellas County Watch Dogs | Pinellas Park | Florida |
| May 8, 2024 | Republican Liberty Caucus Polk County | Hillsborough | Florida |
| May 9, 2024 | Heart of Florida Republican Women | Deland and Flagler Beach | Florida |
| May 20, 2024 | Flagler Trump Republican Assembly Flagler Co | Palm Coast | Florida |
| June 24, 2024 | Florida Republican Assembly Palm Beach County | Palm Beach | Florida |
| June 25, 2024 | Patriots For America | Tampa | Florida |
| June 27, 2024 | Undisclosed | Seminole County | Florida |
| July 18, 2024 | Republican Assembly of Sumter County | Sumter County | Florida |
| July 19, 2024 | Undisclosed | Live Oak | Florida |
On July 18, for instance, Richard Mack shared the stage at a meeting of the Republican Assembly of Sumter County with Jess Rumson, aka Sedition Panda, who was convicted of assaulting a police officer during the January 6th insurrection.[18]
According to the plan memo,
“The key is to have the sheriff, county commissioners and supervisor of elections all working together to ensure this. Additionally, one of the key objectives of phase one is to identify an individual that will act as the County Program Director to organize phase two to educate and establish a network with the public.”
Mitchell noted the new plan emerged out of work in Arizona during the pandemic, with the Lake Havasu Patriots to pass “Resolution 1776” during the pandemic. The effort failed.
Now organizing in Florida, Mitchell is promoting the effort by deceptively claiming widespread acceptance, suggesting that “44 of 67 counties” have utilized their solution to stopping “unconstitutional government overreach.”[19] That number is decidedly misleading, as it conflates several different things: 1. the number of counties (48 total) that have agreed to participate in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) program, where local law enforcement officers perform certain functions of federal immigration agents.[20] 2. County sheriffs that signed a CSPOA resolution refusing to enforce gun confiscation during the Obama administration (25 sheriffs signed in 2013, 11 are still in office). 3. Counties that have adopted more recent “2nd Amendment Sanctuary” resolutions (44 as of 2020).[21] 4. Pandemic-related efforts to pass “Bill of Rights Sanctuary” bills in 2020-2021.
The IREHR research team has identified just two Florida counties that have passed “Bill of Rights Sanctuary County” legislation to date. Both were passed before the current CSPOA drive. After rejecting a similar ordinance in 2021, the Collier County Commission passed an ordinance establishing it as a “Bill of Rights Sanctuary County” in August 2023.[22] Sarasota County soon followed, passing a similar resolution (though it was sold as protecting “medical freedom.”)[23]
The effort in Florida comes at an important moment for far-rightists hoping to advance their cause in advance of the results of the next election. The call to action at the September conference could well determine the potential for the CSPOA form of “Lesser Magistrate” insurrection to take root heading into November.
NOTES
[1] Mitchell, William. “180 Day Plan: Election 2024.” Florida Foundation for Freedom Website. July 10, 2024. https://florida.foundationforfreedom.us/knowledge-base/180-day-plan-election-2024/.
[2] Bushman, Sam, Mitchell, William. “Liberty Roundtable. Radio Show Hour 1 – 03/12/2024.” Liberty Roundtable website. March 12, 2024. https://www.libertyroundtable.com/2024/03/12/radio-show-hour-1-03-12-2024/.
[3] Bushman, Sam, Mitchell, William. “Liberty Roundtable. Radio Show Hour 1 – 03/12/2024.” Liberty Roundtable website. March 12, 2024. https://www.libertyroundtable.com/2024/03/12/radio-show-hour-1-03-12-2024/.
[4] In the 1820s, Georgia used nullification in an attempt to erase treaty rights and tribal sovereignty. The state passed an act making Georgia state law applicable on all Cherokee lands and declaring all laws of the Cherokee nation void, effectively nullifying federal treaties. The Supreme Court rejected Georgia’s attempt to nullify the federal treaties with the Cherokees.
It is most closely associated with the conflicts over chattel slavery leading up to the Civil War, most vociferously argued by John C. Calhoun. Between 1798 and the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, several states threatened or attempted nullification of various federal laws. None of these efforts were upheld by the Supreme Court. The Civil War ended most nullification efforts. In the 1950s, southern states attempted to use nullification to prevent integration of their schools. These attempts failed when the Supreme Court again rejected nullification in Cooper v. Aaron, which held that Arkansas may not nullify federal law regarding the desegregation of Little Rock public schools.
[5] League of the South. Core Beliefs Statement of The League of the South. https://leagueofthesouth.com/corebeliefs/. Accessed August 20, 2024.
[6] Mitchell, William. “180 Day Plan: Election 2024.” Florida Foundation for Freedom Website. July 10, 2024. https://florida.foundationforfreedom.us/knowledge-base/180-day-plan-election-2024/.
[7] Mitchell, William. “180 Day Plan: Election 2024.” Florida Foundation for Freedom Website. July 10, 2024. https://florida.foundationforfreedom.us/knowledge-base/180-day-plan-election-2024/.
[8] Mitchell, William. “180 Day Plan: Election 2024.” Florida Foundation for Freedom Website. July 10, 2024. https://florida.foundationforfreedom.us/knowledge-base/180-day-plan-election-2024/.
[9] Petrovic, Phoebe. “The Gospel of Matthew Trewhella: How a militant anti-abortion activist is influencing Republican Politics.” Wisconsin Watch Website. July 10. 2024. https://wisconsinwatch.org/2024/07/wisconsin-trewhella-republican-abortion-election-pastor-politics/.
[10] Trewhella, Matthew. “The Demise of Sodomites in a Just Society.” Facebook. December 19, 2010. https://www.facebook.com/matt.trewhella.7/posts/116748505059958.
[11] Trewhella, Matthew. The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates: A Proper Resistance to Tyranny and a Repudiation of Unlimited Obedience to Civil Government. Self-Published. 2013.
[12] Trewhella, Matthew. The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates: A Proper Resistance to Tyranny and a Repudiation of Unlimited Obedience to Civil Government. Self-Published. 2013.
[13] Mitchell, William. “180 Day Plan: Election 2024.” Florida Foundation for Freedom Website. July 10, 2024. https://florida.foundationforfreedom.us/knowledge-base/180-day-plan-election-2024/.
[14] “Laws governing recall in Florida.” Ballotpedia. Undated. Last Accessed August 20, 2024. https://ballotpedia.org/Laws_governing_recall_in_Florida.
[15] In 2023, Florida state Rep. Joel Rudman (R) introduced House Joint Resolution 131, a proposed amendment that would allow Florida voters to recall all elected county officials in the state, including supervisors of elections. The resolution died in committee. In Florida, elections in each county are overseen by a supervisor of elections that is generally elected by county voters. The state constitution currently only allows recalls against elected county officials in Florida’s 20 charter counties, H.J.R. 131 would amend the constitution to allow recalls against county officials in all 67 counties. As noted in Democracy Docket, “Supervisors of elections all across the state could become subject to frivolous recalls for merely doing their jobs, adding even more pressure to elections officials in a climate of increased threats, harassment and conspiracy theories.” Brower, Mac. “Florida Republican Introduces Proposal to Allow Recalls of Election Officials.” Democracy Docket. January 19, 2023. https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/florida-republican-introduces-proposal-to-allow-recalls-of-election-officials/.
[16] Bushman, Sam, Mitchell, William. “Liberty Roundtable. Radio Show Hour 1 – 03/12/2024.” Liberty Roundtable website. March 12, 2024.
[17] Florida Foundation for Freedom. “What is a constitutional county? Why do we need it?” YouTube. July 17, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um3pRTqGF3o.
[18] “‘Sedition Panda’ convicted in Jan. 6 uprising to speak to local GOP.” Villages-News.com. July 16, 2024. https://www.villages-news.com/2024/07/16/sedition-panda-convicted-in-jan-6-uprising-to-speak-to-local-gop/.
[19] “Florida Foundation for Freedom Conference.” Undated. Last Accessed August 20, 2024. https://sovevents.com/fffc/#about.
[20] “Delegation of Immigration Authority Section 287(g) Immigration and Naturalization Act.” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Last Accessed August 20, 2024. https://www.ice.gov/identify-and-arrest/287g. American Immigration Council. “The 287(g) Program: An Overview” American Immigration Council Website. July 8, 2021. https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/287g-program-immigration.
[21] “New Florida Second Amendment Sanctuary State Map Update 01MAR2021.” Sanctuary Counties website. March 11, 2021. https://sanctuarycounties.com/2021/03/09/new-florida-second-amendment-sanctuary-state-map-update-01mar2021/.
[22] “A hurricane, a fugitive and the fall of Troy: Fallout from Collier County’s anti-federal ordinance.” The Paradise Progressive website. August 28, 2023. https://www.theparadiseprogressive.com/blog-the-paradise-progressive/a-hurricane-a-fugitive-and-the-fall-of-troy-fallout-from-collier-countys-anti-federal-ordinance.
[23] “Sarasota County Leaders OK Medical Freedom Bill of Rights Resolutions.” Naples News. October 11, 2023. https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/local/sarasota/2023/10/11/sarasota-county-leaders-ok-medical-freedom-bill-of-rights-resolutions/71128430007/.
