Sheriffs in the United States hold immense power. They arrest people on the streets they patrol, they run their county’s jails, and they enforce evictions. In many areas, they enforce immigration laws and conduct homicide investigations for municipal police departments in their counties. 
Over the past two decades, some sheriffs have advocated for the notion of “constitutional sheriffs,” which holds that the sheriff’s authority supersedes those of local government, courts, state and federal legislatures — even that of the president of the United States. Several sheriffs in the movement have said they would not enforce some gun control laws and opposed COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.
