Caucasian man in disposable facial mask.

SALEM — A handful of Oregon sheriffs are seizing on the state’s latest COVID mandates to proclaim their opposition to Democratic Gov. Kate Brown and repeat the false claim that sheriffs’ powers to protect people’s constitutional and “God given rights” supersede the authority of the state and federal government.

On Thursday, Aug. 26, Polk County Sheriff Mark Garton posted an open letter on Facebook stating he believes in protecting people’s constitutional rights and “medical freedom.” Garton said he believes that “overreaching state or federal authority … goes against the principles of our constitution and the structure of this republic.”

Garton is one of at least five Oregon sheriffs who have so far posted letters on social media in recent weeks, accusing the governor of issuing an “unconstitutional mandate” and arguing that public health rules violate Oregonians’ “God given right to choose what is best for ourselves and our children.”

Two other sheriffs stated online that they do not plan to enforce state indoor and outdoor mask mandates but steered clear of making constitutional claims or attacking the governor.

Oregon has 36 counties, each with an elected sheriff.

Although some of the letters were addressed to the governor, sheriffs’ constituents appear to be the actual intended recipients of the messaging. None of the sheriffs mailed or emailed the letter to Brown, deputy communications director Charles Boyle confirmed.

In fact, no state official has asked sheriffs to enforce the mask mandates.

Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health division enforces the state’s indoor-mask mandate and people can report violations by visiting the agency’s website. Brown’s outdoor mask requirement for crowded public venues took effect Aug. 20.

Nonetheless, the sheriffs want their constituents to know where they stand on the state’s public health rules, and some indicated they were responding to questions from the public and “media.”

“Stand up and be heard!!” Union County Sheriff Cody Bowen wrote on Facebook when he posted his letter to the governor on Aug. 13. “We live in a free country!”

Zoe Nemerever, an assistant professor of political science at Texas Tech University, has researched the constitutionalist sheriffs movement that popularized the idea that sheriffs’ authority is greater than states’ and the federal government’s and impacts of the movement in Western states.

From 1995 to 2015, Nemerever found the constitutional sheriff movement was especially prevalent in southwestern Oregon and Northern California. Since the pandemic took hold, Nemerever noticed that some of these sheriffs — who previously opposed federal authority over public lands and federal and state gun regulations — were also taking public positions against COVID public health mandates.

“Constitutional sheriffs misunderstand the Constitution,” Nemerever said in an interview. “They don’t have supremacy over other branches of government, plainly put.”

Although law enforcement at all levels exercises a degree of discretion on which laws to enforce, the “constitutional sheriff” movement is known for its members making a point of ignoring state and federal laws that they believe impinge on people’s rights.

Given that sheriffs are proclaiming their opposition to mandates that few if any officials asked them to enforce, Nemerever said it suggests “it’s just position-taking” in order to court votes in the next election. “It’s all about the image they’re cultivating.”

A handful of Oregon sheriffs also said in 2020 that they would not enforce the governor’s mask and gathering mandates including in Linn County.

In response to this summer’s mandates, Columbia County Sheriff Brian E. Pixley wrote in his Aug. 19 letter to the governor “on behalf of the citizens of Columbia County” that it is in the best interest of Oregonians “to retain local control over decisions affecting the public health and safety and to protect the individual choice of those we represent.”

Malheur County Sheriff Brian E. Wolfe wrote in an Aug. 20 letter to the governor that he believes “certain governmental heads … are testing the waters of tolerance for the loss of freedom to alleged safety. I agree with our citizens that these mandates do not fall within the superior mandates of the Constitution of the United States, which I am sworn to follow above lower orders of (other) elected officials.” Wolfe’s office posted his letter on social media on Aug. 24.

Sheriff John Hanlin of Douglas County, one of Oregon’s hardest hit during the current COVID surge, chimed in Wednesday he would not enforce Brown’s mandates which “many consider to be unconstitutional.”

Tillamook County Sheriff Joshua Brown posted on Facebook Aug. 19 that he’d been receiving inquiries “from the media and public” about whether he would enforce state mask mandates. “I don’t believe it is the role of the Sheriff’s Office to enforce what is essentially an Oregon Health Authority directive, not a criminal one,” Brown wrote, adding that Tillamook sheriff’s deputies would nonetheless respond to reports of harassment and trespass — for example, if a customer refuses to leave a business upon the request of the operator.

Marion County Sheriff Joe Kast said in a brief Aug. 20 letter posted on social media “in response to questions from community members” that he supports “local control” over government responses to COVID-19 and believes it is more effective to encourage people to make educated decisions than to impose mandates.