Interview: David Noll Discusses How Donald Trump and the MAGA Movement Will Legalize and Use Vigilantes to Advance Their Agenda

David Noll teaches law at Rutgers. The New York Times, Slate, the New York Law Journal, and many more magazines have published his work.

He served as a clerk for Judge Richard J. Holwell of the Southern District of New York and Judges Raymond J. Lohier Jr. and Pierre N. Leval of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

He joins us to talk about his recent book, VIGILANTE NATION: How State-Sponsored Terror Threatens Democracy, which he co-wrote with Jon Michaels.

We talk about the nation’s history of vigilantism and how the Christian right will likely support the second Trump administration’s efforts to normalize and legalize vigilante actions in order to support and uphold the new militant, MAGA, political moment that has emerged since the election.

States like Texas, Tennessee, and Florida are quietly passing all of these laws that encourage vigilantism.

According to Noll, who spoke to the Bucks County Beacon, “when you look at all of these laws, they send a very clear message that the MAGA movement wants foot soldiers on the ground in our communities, surveilling people, snitching on them, and carrying out the MAGA agenda.”

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