Sovereign Citizens: Above The Law Or Lawless?

The sovereign citizen movement is a loose group of anti-government activists, tax protesters, financial scammers, and conspiracy theorists. Sovereign citizens have their own pseudo-legal belief system based on misinterpretations of common law and claim not to be subject to any government statutes unless they consent to them. They believe that courts have no jurisdiction over people and that certain procedures and loopholes can make one immune to government laws and regulations. They also regard most forms of taxation as illegitimate and reject Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, and vehicle registration.

The FBI considers sovereign-citizen extremists as comprising a domestic terrorist movement. Sovereign citizens do not represent an anarchist group, nor are they a militia, although they sometimes use or buy illegal weapons. They follow their own set of laws and believe the government operates outside of its jurisdiction.

The sovereign citizen movement is a threat to law enforcement, and their ideology has spread to many other countries.

Sovereign citizens believe they are above the law

Sovereign citizens are a loose group of anti-government activists, tax protesters, financial scammers, and conspiracy theorists. They have their own pseudo-legal belief system based on misinterpretations of common law and claim not to be subject to any government statutes unless they consent to them.

Sovereign citizens believe that courts have no jurisdiction over people and that certain procedures can make one immune to government laws and regulations. They also regard most forms of taxation as illegitimate and reject Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, and vehicle registration.

The movement's beliefs are based on the idea that the state is not an actual government, but a corporation. They believe that the corporation that purports to be the U.S. federal government is illegally controlling the republic via a territorial government in Washington, D.C. Sovereign citizens believe that commercial law secretly replaced common law and that the current, illegitimate law is based on principles of international commerce.

Sovereign citizens believe that they can opt out of the purported contract between the individual and the state, making themselves immune from the laws they do not wish to follow. When confronted by police officers or other officials, sovereign citizens typically attempt to negate their authority by saying, "I do not consent".

The belief that the current legal system is illegitimate has led some sovereign citizens to consider themselves "above the law" and commit crimes.

Sovereign citizens are anti-government extremists

The sovereign citizen movement has its origins in the Posse Comitatus, a racist far-right movement that evolved in the 1970s. One of the originators of the Posse Comitatus, William Potter Gale, was an antisemitic white supremacist obsessed with the purity of white Anglo-Saxon Christians and their supposedly special status as God’s chosen people. Gale spearheaded the Posse Comitatus movement with the aim of developing a legal argument for the dismissal of federal law in favor of a system in which the county sheriff was the highest (and in fact, the only) authority.

The sovereign citizen movement is not limited to the United States. It has spread to other English-speaking countries, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and South Africa. In the 2010s, the movement expanded to non-English-speaking European countries, including Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Sovereign citizens engage in a range of criminal activities, including harassment, scams, and violence. They are known for their use of "paper terrorism," which involves the use of falsified legal documents and frivolous lawsuits to intimidate and harass their perceived enemies. They also engage in tax evasion, hostile possession, forgery, threatening public officials, bank fraud, and traffic violations.

Sovereign citizens have been involved in numerous violent confrontations with law enforcement and government officials. They have a reputation for threats and violence and often direct their anger at these figures. They reject the legitimacy of modern American federal and state governments and believe that citizens have entered a contract with the state that is corrupt and unjust. They reject laws enacted at any level higher than county government.

Sovereign citizens have a well-deserved reputation for threats and violence. They can be volatile and are often armed, making them particularly dangerous in confrontations. Traffic stops are among the most dangerous situations for police officers dealing with sovereign citizens. Sovereign citizens believe that police have no jurisdiction over them and no right to pull them over, and some are motivated by this belief to assault or even kill.

Sovereign citizens believe in a pseudo-legal belief system

Sovereign citizens believe that courts have no jurisdiction over people and that certain procedures and loopholes can make one immune to government laws and regulations. They also regard most forms of taxation as illegitimate and reject Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, and vehicle registration.

The sovereign citizen movement can be traced back to far-right groups in the United States, such as the Posse Comitatus, which was a white supremacist and antisemitic group. However, the sovereign citizen movement has since evolved and now attracts people of various ethnicities, including a significant number of African Americans.

The sovereign citizen movement has no single leader or established doctrine, but there are some common themes. Sovereign citizens generally believe that the legitimate government and legal system have been replaced and that the current authorities are illegitimate. They also believe that taxes and licenses are illegitimate.

One common belief among sovereign citizens is that the state is not a real government, but a corporation. They argue that the corporation that claims to be the U.S. federal government is illegally controlling the republic through a territorial government in Washington, D.C. Sovereign citizens also claim that commercial law secretly replaced common law and that the current, illegitimate law is based on principles of international commerce, also known as admiralty law.

Sovereign citizens believe that they can take steps to divorce themselves from the illegitimate government, after which it has no authority or jurisdiction over them. They argue that they are "free people" who are not subject to any local laws or legal constraints, including taxes and fines.

Sovereign citizens often use flawed or invented legal arguments and irregular documents to support their claims. They may also use an unusual vocabulary and twist the meaning of legal terms to suit their purposes. For example, when dealing with the police, sovereign citizens will often say "I comprehend" instead of "I understand" because they believe that the word "understand" acknowledges that one "stands under the jurisdiction" of the police, thus recognizing the police's authority.

Sovereign citizens are a domestic terrorist movement

Sovereign citizens engage in various illegal activities, including tax evasion, hostile possession, forgery, threatening public officials, bank fraud, and traffic violations. They also commit violent crimes such as murder and assault. They are known to be dangerous to law enforcement and have been involved in numerous confrontations and shootouts with police officers.

The sovereign citizen movement has no centralized leadership, but it consists of various groups and "gurus" who spread their ideas through seminars, social media, and the internet. The movement has attracted people from diverse backgrounds, including white supremacists, QAnon adherents, anti-vaxxers, and MAGA supporters. It has also spread to jails and prisons, where inmates teach and adopt sovereign citizen ideologies.

The movement's pseudo-legal arguments and tactics are often unsuccessful in court, and sovereign citizens have been convicted and sentenced for their crimes. However, their ability to cause harm and disrupt law enforcement and the legal system remains a significant concern.

Sovereign citizens are a public safety threat

The sovereign citizen movement is a large anti-government extremist movement whose adherents believe that they can ignore laws, regulations, court orders, and taxes because they have divorced themselves from what they claim is an illegitimate, tyrannical government. Sovereign citizens engage in a large amount of criminal activity, including harassment and retaliation tactics, scams and frauds, and violence, including armed standoffs, shootouts, murders, and terrorist plots.

Sovereign citizens are known for their abstruse pseudo-legal arguments, as well as other unusual behaviors, such as inserting gratuitous punctuation marks in their names or flouting motor vehicle regulations while proclaiming they are “travelers,” not “drivers." They consistently violate traffic laws by refusing to register or insure their vehicles or use driver's licenses or valid license plates. Sovereign citizens often use flawed or invented legal arguments or irregular documents that may have been bought from other movement members as "proof" of their claims.

Sovereign citizens' conflicts with authorities have occasionally resulted in violence. They can be extremely volatile in the courtroom, engaging in a variety of disruptive behaviors or even violent acts. They most often direct their anger at law enforcement officers and government officials, but businesses and individuals can also easily become targets. Sovereign citizens have committed a number of murders in recent years.

Sovereign citizens are a growing domestic threat to law enforcement. The FBI considers sovereign-citizen extremists as comprising a domestic terrorist movement. Lone-offender sovereign-citizen extremists have killed six law enforcement officers since 2000. The sovereign-citizen threat will likely grow as the nationwide movement is fueled by the internet, the economic downturn, and seminars held across the country that spread their ideology and show people how they can tap into funds and eliminate debt through fraudulent methods. As sovereign citizens' numbers grow, so do the chances of contact with law enforcement and, thus, the risks that incidents will end in violence.

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