Thirteen years ago, an evangelical minister in Idaho who was about to headline a “history” conference at the University of Idaho at Moscow ran head-on into a massive political firestorm. The cause was a book pastor Douglas Wilson had co-authored that offered up an unusual take on antebellum American slavery.

After last year’s massacre of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., PayPal, one of the world’s largest online pay processors, finally suspended the account of a major white supremacist group known as the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC). Mass murderer Dylann Roof had left writings making clear he got his inspiration from the CCC, a group obsessed with black-on-white crime.

The legalization of same-sex marriage, the Syrian refugee crisis, the continuing threat of Islamist terrorism and simmering discontent over federal control of public lands have sparked an upsurge in hardline state legislation. What is most remarkable is how many of the proposed laws appear plainly unconstitutional.

Way back in 2010, the FBI labeled “sovereign citizens” — conspiracy-minded people who believe that most laws and tax requirements don’t apply to them — as a “domestic terrorist” movement. This June, there was another reminder of why.