Sovereign citizen movement no relation Terry Nichols
The sovereign citizen movement (also SovCit movement or SovCits) is a loose grouping of litigants, activists, tax protesters, financial scheme promoters, and conspiracy theorists who claim to be answerable only to their particular interpretations of the common law and believe that they are therefore not subject to any government statutes or proceedings, unless they consent to them. The movement, which appeared in the early 1970s, is American in origin and exists primarily in the United States, though it has expanded to other countries: the freeman on the land movement, an offshoot of the sovereign citizen movement with similar doctrines, emerged during the 2000s in Canada before spreading to other Commonwealth countries. In the United States the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) describes sovereign citizens as "anti-government extremists who believe that even though they physically reside in this country, they are separate or 'sovereign' from the United States."The sovereign citizen phenomenon is one of the main contemporary sources of pseudolaw: adherents to its ideology believe that courts have no jurisdiction over people and that the use of certain procedures (such as writing specific phrases on bills they do not want to pay) and loopholes can make one immune from government laws and regulations. They also regard most forms of taxation as illegitimate and reject the use of such things as Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, and vehicle registration. Sovereign citizen arguments have no basis in law and have never been successful in court.The movement may appeal to people facing financial or legal difficulties, or wishing to resist perceived government oppression, and looking for a mechanism that will solve their problems. As a result, it has grown significantly during times of economic or social crisis. Most schemes promoted by sovereign citizens involve means to avoid taxes, ignore laws, eliminate debts, or extract money from the government.American participants in the movement claim that the United States federal government is illegitimate. They argue the concept of individual sovereignty in opposition to the idea of "federal citizens," who, they say, have unknowingly forfeited their rights by accepting some aspect of federal law. Their foreign analogues hold similar beliefs about the government of their own countries. The movement can be traced back to American far-right groups like the Posse Comitatus and the constitutionalist wing of the militia movement. While the sovereign citizen movement was originally associated with white supremacism and antisemitism, it now attracts people of various ethnicities, including a significant number of African Americans. The latter sometimes belong to self-declared Moorish sects.The majority of sovereign citizens are not violent and many will use pseudolegal tactics in attempts to ignore certain rules, to get out of debt, or to avoid having to pay license fees and traffic tickets. However, the methods advocated by the movement are illegal and warrant prosecution; sovereign citizens notably adhere to the fraudulent schemes promoted by the redemption "A4V" movement. Many sovereign citizens have been found guilty of offenses such as tax evasion, hostile possession, forgery, threat against public officials, bank fraud or check fraud, as well as various degrees of traffic violations. Two of the most important crackdowns by U.S. authorities on sovereign citizen organizations have been the 1996 case of the Montana Freemen and the 2018 sentencing of "Judge" Bruce Doucette and his associates.Also, because some have engaged in armed confrontations with law enforcement, the FBI classifies "sovereign citizen extremists" as domestic terrorists. Terry Nichols, one of the perpetrators of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, subscribed to a variation of sovereign citizen ideology. 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, racist skinheads, neo-Nazis, and radical environmentalists. The New South Wales Police Force in Australia has also identified sovereign citizens as a potential terrorist threat.Other
Other pseudolegal theories commonly shared by sovereign citizens include that "silence means consent" for any sort of documents, that any claim or alleged statement of fact placed in a sworn document (known in pseudolegal jargon as an "affidavit of truth") is proven true unless rebutted, and that there is no crime if there is no injured party.Some sovereign citizens are involved in other forms of conspiracy theories, including QAnon. Certain subgroups within the movement adhere to theories about extraterrestrials and reptilians. One advocate of sovereign citizen fraudulent tax avoidance schemes, Sean David Morton, was also active as a psychic and ufologist. In Québec, sovereign citizen ideology has been promoted by anti-vaccine activist and AIDS denialist Guylaine Lanctôt.In 2022, the Anti-Defamation League reported that sovereign citizen ideology was "increasingly seeping" into QAnon, as the movement's anti-government views were compatible with QAnon's belief in a worldwide "cabal" and in the illegitimacy of the Biden administration.Some sovereign citizen groups, notably that led in Texas by married couple of "gurus" David and Bonnie Straight, have been convincing parents whose children were removed from their custody that Child Protective Services are engaged in child trafficking, and encouraging them to kidnap their children. The belief that child protection agencies are involved in crimes against children is also consistent with QAnon ideology.Several sovereign citizen "gurus" have made grandiose claims about the powers supposedly granted to them by their pseudolegal schemes. One American ideologue and "quantum grammar" advocate, Russell Jay Gould, claims that having signed a postal receipt in a specific way and filed a document relating to Title 4 of the United States Code, at a moment when the country was supposedly bankrupt, makes him the "Postmaster-General" and legitimate ruler of the United States. Another American guru, Heather Ann Tucci-Jarraf, claimed before her sentencing for fraud to have "foreclosed" and "cancelled" all banks and governments through UCC filings. Likewise, Romana Didulo, a Canadian QAnon conspiracy theorist, uses sovereign citizen concepts to back her claims of being the rightful Queen of Canada, and eventually the "Queen of the World".Tactics
Sovereign citizens may be affiliated to a group within the movement, follow the teachings of a specific "guru", or act entirely on their own. By disobeying rules they consider to be illegitimate, they regularly find themselves in conflict with all forms of government institutions, most commonly law enforcement, the judiciary, and the revenue services. One sovereign citizen from Montana, Ernie Wayne terTelgte, became a local celebrity by engaging in 2013 in a protracted legal battle with authorities over the need to have a fishing license and then having multiple incidents with law enforcement over this matter, as well as his lack of a driver's license.Sovereign citizens often use irregular documents and flawed or invented legal arguments as "proof" of their claims. Pseudolegal documents, including those purporting to assert one's "sovereignty," thus making them immune from their country's law, may be sold by sovereign citizen groups for monetary gain. It is common for sovereign citizen "gurus" to earn money by selling to followers of the movement standard documents such as template filings, scripts to recite at court appearances, or other "quick-fix" solutions to legal problems. Some "gurus" sell "how-to" manuals explaining the movement's theories and schemes. One such manual is Title 4 Flag Says You're Schwag: The Sovereign Citizen's Handbook, which has been reprinted and updated several times.Sovereign citizens will often use an unusual vocabulary and twist the meaning of legal terms, or even commonplace phrases, according to their own convenience. This includes avoiding the use of expressions they think would make them enter into a "contract" with the government. For example, when dealing with the police sovereign citizens will often avoid saying "I understand" and will say instead "I comprehend," as they believe that the word "understand" acknowledges that one "stand[s] under the jurisdiction", thus recognizing the police's authority.Sovereign citizens' conflicts with authorities have occasionally resulted in violence.Pseudolegal tactics
Sovereign citizen documents may include unusual formalities, such as Latin maxims, thumbprints, or stamps in certain places, as well as unconventional, sometimes incomprehensible legalese. Stamps are generally accompanied by signatures (with the sovereign citizen's name signed across them), initials or other markings. Signatures and thumbprints are likely to be in red ink or blood, since black and blue inks are believed to indicate corporations. As bonds are canceled using red ink in some U.S. states, sovereign citizens may sign in red ink to signify that they are canceling the bond attached to their birth certificate or to their "strawman". Others use red ink because it represents the blood of the "flesh-and-blood person". Other methods to dissociate oneself from the "strawman" include unusual spelling and writing one's name in a different manner or with punctuation, i.e. "John of the family Doe" instead of "John Doe" or "John-Robert: Doe" instead of "John Robert Doe".Sovereign citizens will often add the Latin phrase sui juris (meaning "of one's own right") to their names on legal documents, to signify that they are reserving all the rights to which they are entitled as a free person.Postage stamps are supposed to make pseudolegal documents authoritative, but their meaning varies depending on the "guru". One version has it that stamps grant sovereignty to pseudolaw affiliates: their use on documents purportedly makes one a "postmaster" with equal rights and peer status to nation states.When signing an official document such as a drivers' license, a mortgage document, or a traffic ticket, sovereign citizens will often add under threat, duress and coercion (or a variation thereof, such as the initials TDC) after or under their name: that phrase implies that they are not voluntarily signing the document, which purportedly helps them avoid entering into a "contract" with the illegitimate government and falling under its jurisdiction. Some may write TDC after their ZIP codes.Cases involving sovereign citizens can cause severe problems to law enforcement officers and court officials. Sovereign citizens may challenge the laws, rules or sentences they disagree with by engaging in the practice known as paper terrorism, which involves filing complaints with legal documents that may be bogus or simply misused. Minor issues such as traffic violations or disagreements over pet-licensing fees may provoke numerous court filings. Courts will then find themselves burdened with having to process hundreds of pages of irregular, pseudolegal documents, causing a strain on their resources.In May 2019, Kim Blandino, a felon residing in Nevada, was found guilty of traffic offenses. He then threatened the judge who had presided over his hearing to file complaints against him, and demanded a monetary "settlement" from him. Blandino was charged with extortion and impersonation of an officer: he then filed numerous motions to delay the proceedings, and tried to disqualify almost every judge in the district. Blandino's motions required multiple reviews and countless hours of hearings. As a result, the case had not yet reached a final disposition by March 2022.When involved in court cases, sovereign citizens will generally act as their own lawyers, though on some occasions a sovereign citizen "leader" may assist them in court. They often use uncommon or downright disconcerting pseudolegal tactics. People and groups linked to the movement have been using a constructed language created by American theorist David Wynn Miller, who asserted that this unorthodox version of the English language, variously called "Parse-Syntax-Grammar", "Correct-Language", "Truth Language" or "Quantum Grammar", guarantees success in legal proceedings where it constitutes the only "correct" form of communication.As they regard themselves as bound only by their own interpretation of common law, sovereign citizens have been setting up militias of self-appointed "sheriffs", as well as "common law courts", to handle matters regarding movement members. These "courts", which are devoid of legal authority, are frequently used to formalize the "declarations of sovereignty" of movement members, in a process often known as "asseveration".
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