Sovereign Citizen, what is it ?

The sovereign citizen movement (also SovCit movement or SovCits) is a loose group of anti-government activists, litigants, tax protesters, financial scammers, and conspiracy theorists based mainly in the United States. Sovereign citizens have their own pseudo legal belief system based on misinterpretations of common law and claim to not be subject to any government statutes unless they consent to them.

The movement appeared in the United States in the early 1970s and has since expanded to other countries; the similar freeman on the land movement emerged during the 2000s in Canada before spreading to other Commonwealth countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

The 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. Sovereign citizens 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 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. Sovereign citizen arguments have no basis in law and have never been successful in any court.

The movement may appeal to people facing financial or legal difficulties or wishing to resist perceived government oppression. As a result, it has grown significantly during times of economic or social crisis. Most schemes promoted by sovereign citizens are ways to avoid paying taxes, ignore laws, eliminate debts, or extract money from the government.

American sovereign citizens claim that the United States federal government is illegitimate. Sovereign citizens outside of the U.S. hold similar beliefs about the government of their own countries. The movement can be traced back to American far-right groups such as 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. However, the methods advocated by the movement are certainly illegal. 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, threatening public officials, bank fraud, and 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 self-proclaimed judge Bruce Doucette and his associates.

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. In 2015, the Australian New South Wales Police Force identified sovereign citizens as a potential terrorist threat and in 2023 (in the wake of the Wieambilla shootings), ASIO and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) indicated they are examining the groups more closely as their beliefs increasingly align with that of other extremists, with the AFP Joint Counter Terrorism Team now required to undergo training on sovereign citizen threats.

So there you have it. Like most nutty things, this comes out of - oh dear --- America.

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JB RESPONDS I have seen and heard of this for many years and it seems like only a certain class of person buys into this and only a certain type of person believes in this - and these people are - to be honest - and from all that I have seen - morons. People who think they are special ( yes maybe they are ) and that they owe nothing to anyone = taxes, licenses or anything and that they are free to enjoy all the perks we tax payers pay towards and they expect, no - demand - it all for free with absolutely no exception.

These people are quite deranged as why should everyone else pay for them.

And if we all were to claim to be Sovereign Citizens, then society would grind to a halt as who is going to pay for anything.

I have also been in contact over the years with several people in the USA claiming to be SC and they do not work while claiming as much in benefits from the state as they can, and don't seem to understand the logic that SOMEONE HAS TO PAY - and if everyone just took took took as they do, then WTF ????? One person, Randy, came to my home in California ( early 1980's ) with a friend of ours and expected everything for free, to stay overnight, use my car, eat my food and he told me way back then about his rights as a Sovereign Citizen and - regretfully for him - he was asked to leave and eventually thrown out of the house and in my best of British told to ' Go fuck yourself you free loading piece of shit.' - and my lover just stood with his mouth open as he had never seen me so irritated.

He even asked me to drive him to town, a 45 minute drive into San Francisco, and you can guess my response... I did however, offer to drop him at the local bus station but as he had no money, he ended up walking.

I do NOT respond or respect BUMS.

This comes out of America originally and when we look at the USA and we consider many other lunatic - things that come out of the USA, we have to smile and go '

' Yes dear, whatever you say dear, now take your medication and let's get you back into bed - all warm and safe.'

The world is slowly going around the U bend.

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