Always wished you could live in Montana, but aren't sure if you'd fit in? Here's a taste of the local flavor to help you decide.

Down in Ravalli County, which lies just south of Missoula, residents have forwarded a sort of list of demands to the sheriff and county commissioners.

About 175 residents signed their names to a letter reminding county officials of their oath to defend the constitution and seeking their affirmative support for the following proposals (as reported in the Missoulian, which I wish would have just scanned the document and made it available on-line, but we're only nine years into the 21st century, so give them time):

• A requirement that U.S. agents of any and all kinds must obtain written permission from the sheriff and county commissioners before approaching a county resident.
• Except agents of the U.S. EPA, who won't be allowed into the county at all, because that agency's existence is unconstitutional. Besides: “Much of the so-called support for environmental regulations is based upon the dubious assumption that there is such a phenomenon as global warming, when, in fact, the majority of scientists globally agree that we are not experiencing global warming."
• Also, a requirement that the sheriff press county residents 18 and over into a militia, for which he will organize training three weeks out of every year. The Missoulian quotes some amplifying detail from the questionnaire: "Women must serve, but not in a combat capacity unless the men are in danger of being overrun." [Emphasis, um, mine.]

Though the letter/petition is not officially associated with a new, local group called Celebrating Conservatism, many of the signatories are members, including the group's founder and a former leading light of the state's Republican Party, Mona Docteur. (She resigned because the GOP isn't conservative enough, in case you couldn't guess.)

How do you celebrate conservatism, anyway? Why, with Second Amendment picnics at the Ravalli County Fairgrounds (fair enough) and by gathering to listen to speakers such as Jack McLamb. That McLamb is from Idaho is almost all you need to know about him, but I'll just add that he is the leader of a group called "Police and Military Against the New World Order." According to their web site, they're looking for new members:

"If you have soldiers or lawmen who are family or friends and whom you believe to be true patriots, please contact Officer McLamb's police and military organizations office to put them in contact with peers who love and defend America from our nations most dangerous, corrupt, and criminal enemies.... our internal, high level, enemies. Please contact him between 9:15 am and 4:00 pm, Mon thru Fri. PST. Tel: (208) 935-7852

As Officer Jack says, "Our peers in uniform cannot defend our nation and people from enemies who they do not know and recognize. Our work at our two police and military organizations is to help our peers know the enemy."

[The italics, once again, are mine. Also, elipsis marks in the original; in other words, nothing elided.]

So, if you know anyone ....

Hey, here's a message direct from Officer Jack himself:

"Our Creator God asks all His people this question: "Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?" - Psalm 94:16

Americans, when our nation was founded, answered this call from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. America MUST answer our Father's call today, if we are to survive and serve Him. - 2nd Chron. 7:14

Your brother, for God & the Republic, - Officer Jack McLamb, Ret."

Maybe I'll start signing emails that way.

For further context, it might help to know that it was a former sheriff of Ravalli County, Jay Printz, who—with an Arizona sheriff named Richard Mack—successfully challenged a provision of the federal Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act that required local law enforcement to perform background checks on gun purchasers. It's an interesting decision and, while you might disagree with the specific result in this case, it has large and not necessarily terrible implications.

"Professor Ann Althouse has suggested, retained in its strong form, the anti-commandeering doctrine announced in Printz "can work as a safeguard for the rights of the people";"the federal government might go too far in prosecuting the war on terrorism," Printz provides a circuit-breaker that might allow local and state officials to refuse to enforce regulations curbing individual rights. Moreover, "[b]y denying the means of commandeering to the federal government, the courts have created an incentive [for Congress] to adopt policies that inspire [rather than demand] compliance, thus preserving a beneficial structural safeguard for individual rights," and "state and local government autonomy can exert pressure on the federal government to moderate its efforts and take care not to offend constitutional rights."

Here's hoping.

Interestingly, Mack—another invited speaker at a Celebrating Conservatism event—has made something of a career out of being an at least self-styled constitution defender. Did you know that there is a "constitutional sheriff" movement afoot? If the term confuses you, here's what Mack says a "constitutional sheriff" would have done in Montgomery, Alabama in response to Rosa Parks's refusal to comply with segregation laws.

“Ma’am, what’s the problem,” a constitutional sheriff would have asked her, Mack said. Told she had taken an empty seat and just wanted to be left alone, the constitutional sheriff would have sat down next to her, ridden with her to her stop – and, once off, for good measure taken her into a whites-only restaurant so she could buy sandwiches for her and her husband.

He’d have then escorted her home, Mack said – asked if her husband was armed and could defend his family if anyone upset by what had happened came around and threatened them – and ordered extra patrols of the house.

“Remember, segregation wasn’t a tradition, it was the law of the land,” Mack said. “Rosa Parks taught us what you do with stupid laws.”

All clear? That's from an article in the Missoulian, but I'm going to link to a reprint of it on a Web site called The Oath Keeper, because I'd like to give you the chance to poke around there a little.

In case you're unclear on the stakes, Mack has recently published a book called The County Sheriff: America's Last Hope.

In case you're unaware of the scale, the Missoulian reports that Mack's "movement seeks to target 1,000 sheriff races across the U.S. in 2010," so maybe you don't even have to move to Montana. Maybe Montana will come to you!

Photo by Flickr user C.J. Sorg.

Now based in Missoula, Montana after three decades on the coasts, Sutton is a freelance business writer and journalist. He writes the Missoula Notebook for the nationally-award-winning online news source New West, keeps a blog, and can be found on Twitter and Facebook. Click here for an overview of what Went West is all about.

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