"Here's what I say," Lewis County Sheriff Robert Snaza told the crowd outside a church Tuesday, carrying a megaphone and sporting his green and beige uniform but no face mask. "Don't be a sheep."Few of the people cheering on Snaza covered their faces either, according to video of the scene taken by the Daily Chronicle of Centralia, Wash. Indeed, the words on a billboard above the crowd seemed to capture their feeling about the pandemic: "Oh, no! A virus. Quick - burn the bill of rights."

With coronavirus infections rapidly spreading across the American South and West and more states making masks a requirement, dozens of sheriffs like Snaza are staging a rebellion against state governments. An adherence to their interpretation of Constitution, they say, comes before any kind of public health advice.