Representing the Sovereign Citizen | Voice For The Defense Online

A good overview of the Sovereign Movement from a defense attorney's point of view

Sovereign citizens differ on when this usurpation of rights occurred. Some believe it occurred with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, which created Fourteenth Amendment citizens—essentially slaves under admiralty law. Others argue it occurred when the Federal Reserve Act was passed in 1913. The most prominent view, called Redemption Theory, postulates that it occurred in 1933 when the United States departed from the gold standard. Regardless of when it happened, sovereign citizens believe it marked the government’s declaration of people as animals, enabling the largest genocide in the world’s history. The derivation of each person’s individual sovereignty is the cause of the sovereign citizen movement.

Redemption theorists believe that the 1933 departure from the gold standard as the backing for United States currency marks the replacement of “common law” with admiralty law. At this time, they believe, the United States government was dissolved due to bankruptcy, resulting in the reformation of the United States as the United States government-corporation. To fund foreign trade agreements and pay off debts to foreign countries, the United States began to use its citizens as collateral. The United States, now a government-corporation operating under admiralty law, registers people as collateral by way of birth certificates and social security numbers issued at birth. Each citizen’s projected lifetime earnings were gathered in a “strawman” account in the United States Department of Treasury when any United States citizen is born. These accounts contain any amount from $300,000 to over more than $20 million. The individual’s rights are then split between the flesh-and-blood individual and the corporate individual created by the “strawman” account.

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However, most sovereign citizens do not encourage violence. Most believe that although violence may become necessary because of the despotic illegitimate United States government, it is still a last resort. Although violence is a last resort for most sovereign citizens, they do believe that the Second Amendment ensures the right of individuals to kill politicians such as the president, senators, congressman, government employees, and court officials. This is the Second Amendment’s primary purpose. Any other protection given by the Second Amendment is incidental. Beliefs like these and the numerous violent acts by sovereign citizens led the Federal Bureau of Investigation to classify sovereign citizens as domestic terrorists.

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This is the problem with recognizing a sovereign citizen. Even when asked outright, a sovereign citizen typically will not call him or herself a “sovereign citizen.” Instead they will answer that they are individuals seeking the truth, not a “statutory person.” What makes sovereign citizens even more difficult to identify is that the movement does not appeal to any one particular demographic. Unlike the Posse Comitatus, the exclusively white radical militia group from which the sovereign citizen movement evolved, the sovereign citizen movement appeals to all races, all ages, all political leanings and affiliations—to people from all walks of life. What connects all people lured into the movement is a common belief that the “system” has targeted them in some way.

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However, widely held and culturally sanctioned beliefs that might be considered delusional in other cultures, but are recognized in one’s own culture, often do not qualify for a diagnosis of delusional disorder. For example, many commonly held religious beliefs may sound delusional to some people. Although they may sound delusional, they are culturally non-native beliefs shared by many individuals and therefore not delusions. Because sovereign citizen beliefs are shared by up to, and maybe exceeding, 300,000 people, the psychologists and researchers who have studied the subject conclude that the sovereign citizen’s odd, seemingly delusional beliefs have been sanctioned and accepted by too many to be considered delusions.

Representing the Sovereign Citizen | Voice For The Defense Online