25 Facts About Sovereign citizen

1.

Sovereign citizen movement 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 to not be subject to any government statutes or proceedings, unless they consent to them.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,922
2.

The sovereign citizen phenomenon is one of the main contemporary sources of pseudolaw: adherents to its ideology notably believe that courts have no actual jurisdiction over people and that the use of certain procedures and loopholes can make one immune from government laws and regulations.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,923
3.

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

FactSnippet No. 2,325,924
4.

Two of the most important crackdowns by US 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.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,925
5.

Sovereign citizen movement comes from the crossroads of the modern American tax protester phenomenon, of the radical and racist anti-government movements in the 1960s and 1970s, and of pseudolaw, which has existed in the United States since at least the 1950s.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,926
6.

The sovereign citizen concept went on to influence the tax protester, Christian Patriot, and redemption movements.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,927
7.

Sovereign citizen ideology garnered more support during the American farm crisis of the late 1970s and 1980s and a financial crisis in both the US and Canada during the same period.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,928
8.

Sovereign citizen ideas have been adopted by some groups within the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,929
9.

Sovereign citizen tactics have been used by members of various other fringe political or religious groups, such as black separatists or the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,930
10.

Since the late 2000s, the sovereign citizen movement has significantly expanded in the United States, due to the Great Recession and more specifically to the mortgage crisis.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,931
11.

One recurring idea in sovereign citizen ideology is that individuals have two personas, one of flesh and blood and the other a separate, secret, legal personality, created upon each person's birth, that is subject to the government.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,932
12.

In Quebec, sovereign citizen ideology has been promoted by anti-vaccine activist and AIDS denialist Guylaine Lanctot.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,933
13.

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.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,934
14.

Sovereign citizen then threatened the judge who had presided over his hearing to file complaints against him, and demanded a monetary "settlement" from him.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,935
15.

Sovereign citizen was eventually found guilty on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file federal income tax returns and sentenced to 36 months in prison.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,936
16.

Sovereign citizen charged its service providers with the responsibility of tracking and taking action against, any such abuse of its services.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,937
17.

Psychic Sean David Morton spent several years promoting sovereign citizen methods purported to "wipe out" taxes, mortgages and loans.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,938
18.

Sovereign citizen eventually managed to get for himself an illegitimate $480,322.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,939
19.

Sovereign citizen was involved in the 2016 Malheur refuge occupation.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,940
20.

Randal Rosado, a Florida resident who subscribed to a form of sovereign citizen ideology, started in 2006 giving unlicensed legal advice against foreclosures.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,941
21.

Sovereign citizen eventually created a series of false legal entities, including an "International Court of Commerce", and used them to file fictitious arrest warrants, court orders and liens against public officials and lawyers, most of whom had been involved in foreclosures.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,942
22.

Sovereign citizen was jailed for one day for contempt of court, and later put back to jail pending trial for refusing to cooperate with the court and to comply with the conditions of her release.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,943
23.

Whilst the more Canada-specific freeman on the land movement has declined since 2010, the Canadian sovereign citizen movement has gained traction during the same period.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,944
24.

In 2011, climate denier and political activist Malcolm Roberts, wrote a letter to then Prime Minister Julia Gillard filled with characteristic sovereign citizen ideas and vocabulary, although he denied that he was a "sovereign citizen".

FactSnippet No. 2,325,945
25.

The Common Law Court website, one of the main UK sovereign citizen resources, has for a time supported an impostor who claimed to be the rightful heir to the British throne.

FactSnippet No. 2,325,946