Sovereign citizen movement


The sovereign citizen movement is a loose grouping of American litigants, commentators, tax protesters, and financial-scheme promoters. Self-described "sovereign citizens" see themselves as answerable only to their particular interpretations of the common law and as not subject to any government statutes or proceedings. In the United States, they do not recognize U.S. currency and maintain that they are "free of any legal constraints". They especially reject most forms of taxation as illegitimate. Participants in the movement argue this concept in opposition to the idea of "federal citizens", who, they say, have unknowingly forfeited their rights by accepting some aspect of federal law. The doctrines of the movement resemble those of the freemen on the land movement more commonly found in the Commonwealth, such as Australia and Canada.
Many members of the sovereign citizen movement believe that the United States government is illegitimate. JJ MacNab, who writes for Forbes about anti-government extremism, has described the sovereign-citizen movement as consisting of individuals who believe that the county sheriff is the most powerful law-enforcement officer in the country, with authority superior to that of any federal agent, elected official, or local law-enforcement official. The movement can be traced back to white-extremist groups like Posse Comitatus and the constitutional militia movement. It also includes members of certain self-declared "Moorish" sects.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation classifies some sovereign citizens as domestic terrorists. In 2010, the Southern Poverty Law Center estimated that approximately 100,000 Americans were "hard-core sovereign believers", with another 200,000 "just starting out by testing sovereign techniques for resisting everything from speeding tickets to drug charges".
In surveys conducted in 2014 and 2015, representatives of U.S. law enforcement ranked the risk of terrorism from the sovereign-citizen movement higher than the risk from any other group, including Islamic extremists, militias, racists, and neo-Nazis. The New South Wales Police Force in Australia has also identified sovereign citizens as a potential terrorist threat.

Theories

The movement is not unified, but a number of leaders referred to as "gurus", developed their own variations but there are common themes.
Sovereign legal theories reinterpret the Constitution of the United States through selective reading of law dictionaries, state court opinions, or specific capitalization, and incorporate other details from a variety of sources not limited to the Uniform Commercial Code, the Articles of Confederation, the Magna Carta, the Bible, and foreign treaties. They ignore the second clause of Article VI of the Constitution which establishes the Constitution as the law of the land and it is the United State Supreme Court which has ultimate authority to interpret it.
Writing in American Scientific Affiliation, Dennis L. Feucht reviewed American Militias: Rebellion, Racism & Religion by Richard Abanes, and described the theory of Richard McDonald, a sovereign-citizen leader, which is that there are two classes of citizens in America: the "original citizens of the states" and "U.S. citizens". McDonald asserts that U.S. citizens or "Fourteenth Amendment"
citizens have civil rights, legislated to give the freed black slaves after the Civil War rights comparable to the unalienable constitutional rights of white state citizens. The benefits of U.S. citizenship are received by consent in exchange for freedom. State citizens consequently take steps to revoke and rescind their U.S. citizenship and reassert their de jure common-law state citizen status. This involves removing one's self from federal jurisdiction and relinquishing any evidence of consent to U.S. citizenship, such as a Social Security number, driver's license, car registration, use of ZIP codes, marriage license, voter registration, and birth certificate. Also included is refusal to pay state and federal income taxes because citizens not under U.S. jurisdiction are not required to pay them. Only residents of the states, not its citizens, are income-taxable, state citizens argue. And as a state citizen landowner, one can bring forward the original land patent and file it with the county for absolute or allodial property rights. Such allodial ownership is held "without recognizing any superior to whom any duty is due on account thereof". Superiors include those who levy property taxes or who hold mortgages or liens against the property.

The unpassed Titles of Nobility Amendment, has been invoked to challenge the legitimacy of the courts as lawyers sometimes use the informal title of Esquire.
In support of his theories, McDonald has established State Citizen Service Centers around the United States as well as a related web presence.
Writer Richard Abanes asserts that sovereign citizens fail to sufficiently examine the context of the case laws they cite, and ignore adverse evidence, such as Federalist No. 15, where Alexander Hamilton expressed the view that the Constitution placed everyone personally under federal authority.
Some sovereign citizens also claim that they can become immune to most or all laws of the United States by renouncing their citizenship, a process they refer to as "expatriation", which involves filing or delivering a nonlegal document claiming to renounce citizenship in a "federal corporation" and declaring only to be a citizen of the state in which they reside, to any county clerk's office that can be convinced to accept it. Mecklenburg County, North Carolina courts were slowed down by a number of defendants who changed their names and declared affiliation with the "Moorish Nation", claiming that they are not culpable for acts committed under the old name and are immune to prosecution because of the affiliation. Other beliefs include the idea that people can be tricked into a contract of adhesion that binds them to the government by using various things including Social Security numbers, fishing licences, or ZIP codes and that avoiding their use means immunity from government authority. Using arguments that rely on exacting definitions and word choice, sovereign citizens may assert a "right to travel" in a "conveyance", distinguishing it from driving an automobile to justify ignoring requirements for license plates, vehicle registration, and driver's licences. The right to travel is claimed based on a variety of passages, some being more commonly used among groups.

History

The concept of a sovereign citizen originated in 1971 in the Posse Comitatus movement as a teaching of Christian Identity minister William P. Gale. The concept has influenced the tax protester movement, the Christian Patriot movement, and the redemption movement—the last of which claims that the U.S. government uses its citizens as collateral against foreign debt. The 1980s farm crisis saw the rise of anti-government protesters selling fraudulent debt-relief programs.
Gale identified the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution as the act that converted "sovereign citizens" into "federal citizens" by their agreement to a contract to accept benefits from the federal government. Other commentators have identified other acts, including the Uniform Commercial Code, the Emergency Banking Act, the Zone Improvement Plan, and the alleged suppression of the Titles of Nobility Amendment.
In addition to Gale's white-nationalist origins, their sovereign arguments have been adopted by the Moorish sovereigns. Their beliefs may have derived, in part, from the Moorish Science Temple of America, which has condemned the sovereign citizen ideologies. The underpinnings of the theories of African-American exemption vary. The Washitaw Nation claims rights through provisions in the Louisiana Purchase treaty granting privileges to Moors as early colonists and the non-existent "United Nations Indigenous People’s Seat 215". Sovereign citizen ideas have been adopted by some groups within the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.
Other than common conspiracy theories about legitimate government having been usurped and replaced, there is no defining text, goals or leadership to the movement. Some of those in the movement believe that the term "sovereign citizen" is an oxymoron and prefer to label themselves as individuals "seeking the Truth".

Legal status of theories

Individuals have tried to use "sovereign citizen" arguments in U.S. federal tax cases since the 1970s. Variations of the argument that an individual is not subject to various laws because the individual is "sovereign" have been rejected by the courts, especially in tax cases such as Johnson v. Commissioner, Wikoff v. Commissioner, United States v. Hart, Young v. Internal Revenue Service, and Stoecklin v. Commissioner. See also Missett v. Commissioner and Hyslep v. Commissioner.
In Risner v. Commissioner, Gregg Risner's argument—that he was not subject to federal income tax because he was a "Self-governing Free Born Sovereign Citizen"—was rejected by the court as being a "frivolous protest" of the tax laws. See also Maxwell v. Snow, and Rowe v. Internal Revenue Service.
Other tax cases include Heitman v. Idaho State Tax Commission, Cobin v. Commissioner, Glavin v. United States, and United States v. Greenstreet. In view of such cases, the IRS has added "free born" or "sovereign" citizenship to its list of frivolous claims that may result in a $5,000 penalty when used as the basis for an inaccurate tax return.
Similarly, when Andrew Schneider was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for making a threat by mail, Schneider argued that he was a free, sovereign citizen and therefore was not subject to the jurisdiction of the federal courts. That argument was rejected by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit as having "no conceivable validity in American law".
In a criminal case in 2013, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington noted:
Defendant Kenneth Wayne Leaming was found guilty of three counts of retaliating against a federal judge or law enforcement officer by a false claim, one count of concealing a person from arrest, and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. On May 24, 2013, Leaming was sentenced to eight years in federal prison.
In Australia there have been a few minor cases where parties have invoked arguments surrounding the "sovereign man". All of these arguments have failed before Australian courts. The courts in New Zealand also appear to have rejected the "sovereign man" arguments.

Filing of false lien notices

According to The New York Times, cases involving so-called sovereign citizens pose "a challenge to law enforcement officers and court officials" in connection with the filing of false notices of liens—a tactic sometimes called "paper terrorism". Anyone can file a notice of lien against property such as real estate, vehicles, or other assets of another under the Uniform Commercial Code and other laws. In most states of the United States, the validity of liens is not investigated or inquired into at the time of filing. Notices of liens are a cloud on the title of the property and may affect the property owner's credit rating, ability to obtain home equity loans, refinance the property or take other action with regards to the property. Notices of releases of liens generally must be filed before property may be transferred. The validity of a lien is determined by further legal procedures. Clearing up fraudulent notices of liens may be expensive and time-consuming. Filing fraudulent notices of liens or documents is both a crime and a civil offense.

U.S. government responses

Following the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, enhancing sentences for certain terrorist-related offenses.
In October 2015, during a domestic terrorism seminar at George Washington University, National Security Division leader and Assistant Attorney General, John P. Carlin, stated that the Obama Administration had witnessed "anti-government views triggering violence throughout America". Carlin personally confirmed the 2014 START survey findings, saying that during his time at the FBI and DOJ, law enforcement officials had identified sovereign citizens as their top concern. Carlin referred to social media as a "radicalization echo chamber", through which domestic extremists deliver, re-appropriate and reinforce messages of hate, propaganda, and calls to recruitment and violence. He charged its service providers with the responsibility of tracking and taking action against, any such abuse of its services.
Carlin announced that, in order to ensure that the DOJ benefited from terrorist-related information and input received from around the country, it had created a new position of Domestic Terrorism Counsel. He said the position would serve several functions: as the main point of contact for U.S. Attorneys working on domestic terrorism matters; to ensure proper coordination of domestic terrorism cases; to play a key role in DOJ headquarter-level efforts to identify domestic terrorism trends, and to analyze legal gaps or enhancements, in order to better shape department strategies for countering national security threats; and to help direct DTEC efforts by providing members with overview and insights into various domestic terrorism cases and trends.

Similar groups outside the United States

Commonwealth of Nations

While arguments specific to the history and laws of the United States are not used, many concepts have been incorporated or adapted by individuals and groups in countries of the Commonwealth of Nations: Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Canada had an estimated 30,000 sovereign citizens in 2015, many associating with the freemen on the land movement, which is cannabis-advocating, politically left and green. Police in New South Wales, Australia, estimate that there were 300 sovereign citizens in the state in the same year. In 2011, businessman turned senator from the defunct One Nation NSW splinter party, Malcolm Roberts, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Julia Gillard filled with characteristic sovereign citizen ideas; Roberts denied he was a "sovereign citizen".
A ruling from the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta examined almost 150 cases involving pseudolaw, grouping them and characterizing them as "Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Arguments".

Austria and Germany

Groups with similar behaviors are found in Austria and Germany. The Reichsbürger movement in Germany originated around 1985 and had approximately 19,000 members in 2019, more concentrated in the south and east. The originator claimed to have been appointed head of the post-World War I Reich, but other leaders claim imperial authority. Groups have issued passports and identification cards. In Austria, the group Staatenbund Österreich in addition to issuing its own passports and licence plates had a written constitution. The group, established in November 2015, used language from a United States based sovereign citizen group, "One People's Public Trust". Its leader was sentenced to 14 years in jail after trying to order the Austrian Armed Forces to overthrow the government and requesting foreign assistance from Vladimir Putin; other members received lesser sentences.

Incidents