Rutgers Law Professor’s New Book Examines State-Sponsored Terror

The United States has long been the home of legal vigilantism. The Fugitive Slave Act’s use of bounty hunters and militias violently enforcing Jim Crow are well documented. However, violent threats are not a thing of the past despite the widespread teaching that vigilantism is incompatible with the rule of law.

Recent examples include Virginia’s governor setting up a tip line for parents to snitch on teachers; Texas unleashing bounty hunters against abortion providers; and Florida encouraging drivers to run over protesters who block traffic in protest. These types of political weapons reflect a concerted post-January 6 legal and political strategy that uses courts, think tanks, school boards, state legislatures, and right-wing media platforms to retrench civil rights and subvert democracy.

That’s the basis of the new book, Vigilante Nation: How State-Sponsored Terror Threatens Our Democracy, written by Rutgers Law Professor David Noll and UCLA Professor Jon Michaels.

“Contrary to the popular image of vigilantes who operate independently of the state, the U.S. has a long history of vigilantism that’s encouraged by law,” Noll said. “By connecting what’s happening today to the nation's history of legalized vigilantism, we hope to add an important new element to our understanding of U.S. law and politics in the modern era.”

Professors Noll and Michaels set out to expose the past and present of the American Right’s political strategy to impose regressive rules on an American public accustomed to abortion rights, gun control, and political freedoms associated with speech, assembly, voting, and LGBTQ+ rights. The book focuses on providing a clear understanding of vigilante laws and how to combat them.

Professor Noll is a scholar of legal institutions and procedure. He teaches and writes in the fields of civil procedure, complex litigation, legislation and regulation, administrative law, and constitutional law. Professor Noll is an academic fellow of the National Institute for Civil Justice. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, the New York Law Journal, and many others.

Media Mentions: LA Times | The American Prospect | New Books Network | Rick Wilson's The Enemies List | Slate