Michael Barkun, professor emeritus of political science, was interviewed for the New Yorker article "The Renegade Sheriffs." Barkun comments on William Potter Gale who proposed the idea of a constitutional sheriff in the 1970s. Potter embraced a belief system called Christian Identity, and, as a self-styled minister, preached that the Constitution was a divinely inspired document. According to Barkun, Gale's message was, "We know what the law really means. It’s all those lawyers who have erected a kind of apparatus of deception." 04/23/18