A Retired FBI Agent’s Advice on Fighting Authoritarianism
This morning, I learned that my dear friend and colleague Mike German had retired from his position as a fellow in the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program. Mike’s relationship with Cato goes back almost 17 years (you can listen to his very first Cato Daily Podcast appearance here), including Cato hosting events featuring two of his books (in 2020 and 2025). He’s also been one of my most important teachers regarding the FBI (he spent 16 years at the Bureau), and a constant source of support for my work here at Cato. The fact that we’re both national security whistleblowers is yet another bond we share.
Mike’s well-earned rest from the insanity of the public policy arena will leave not just the Brennan Center without one of its most authoritative voices on civil liberties—his departure creates a void in the entire privacy and civil liberties professional community that absolutely nobody will be able to fill.
He has, however, left us all a parting gift: sound advice and analysis on how to fight back against the rising tide of coercive, law enforcement-enabled authoritarianism driven by the current regime in Washington.
German’s final piece for the Brennan Center, Federalism as a Check on Abuses by Federal Law Enforcement, is essential reading for anyone concerned about federal law enforcement overreach and how to curtail it.
The key, as Mike points out, is leveraging the constitutional principle of federalism in the law enforcement context:
While it’s true that state and local police cannot obstruct legitimate federal law enforcement activities, these joint law enforcement partnerships are not a barrier to state and local control over federal law enforcement policies or practices. To the contrary, these partnerships provide a key mechanism for state and local authorities to check federal abuse by exercising their power to set the conditions for their cooperation, and terminating the partnerships if refused. Because the truth is that federal law enforcement agencies are far more dependent on their state and local law enforcement partners than vice-versa.
German cites specific past incidents where state or local elected officials terminated the participation of their law enforcement personnel in federal fusion centers, task forces, and the like when federal officials refused to accept specific conditions for the use of those state or local law enforcement personnel.
Every governor, mayor, and county executive in this country should read Mike’s piece and use it as a blueprint for dealing with the Trump regime’s de facto attempts to commandeer state and local police for missions that have absolutely nothing to do with local policing and public safety.