What sovereigns think

These are a bit "out-of-date" but wanted share them as each highlights a different aspect of the Sovereign Movement. What one needs to keep in mind with regard to the movement is that there is no "central" organizing body; there is no "group."  As Wikipedia describes, with Sovereigns you have a

loose grouping of litigants, commentators, tax protesters and financial scheme promoters. Self-described sovereign citizens take the position that they are answerable only to their particular interpretation of the common law and are not subject to any statutes or proceedings at the federal, state, or municipal levels, or that they do not recognize U.S. currency and 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 "federal citizens" who, they say, have unknowingly forfeited their rights by accepting some aspect of federal law.

Also, it is important to remember that with any "group" there is a broad continuum of beliefs from "hard-core sovereign believers to those just starting out by testing sovereign techniques for resisting everything from speeding tickets to drug charges."  That aspect can plainly be seen by previous articles posted concerning this topic

Why Did Maine's Governor Conspire With 'Sovereign Citizen' Extremists?

Chapter 1 of As Maine Went: Governor Paul LePage and the Tea Party Takeover of Maine, by Mike Tipping.

Co-host of Aroostook Watchmen radio show found guilty of operating without a license

The assistant district attorney said that McCarthy simply stopped renewing his license in 2011. He essentially attempted to contest the legality of the current system to require a person to hold and renew a license, saying that he believed that the government is getting too intrusive and doesn’t have the authority to license and regulate such things.

“The judge had to explain to the jury in his instructions that the law essentially doesn’t work that way,” said Pluto. “If he was driving on a public road and if he was driving with a license that was expired, then he was guilty of driving without a license.”

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The group has been linked with the Sovereign Citizens, which is described as a terrorist movement by both the federal government and the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Members of the organization claim no affiliation with the Sovereign Citizens but espouse many of the same beliefs — including the notion that the government has been “hijacked” and is thus illegitimate, that most state laws are “repugnant to the Constitution” and thus invalid, and that the U.S. dollar is a “false currency.”

Two men who met regularly with Gov. LePage arrested for pursuing Sovereign Citizen beliefs

McCarthy is not the only one of the four main members of the Constitutional Coalition who has recently been arrested for pursuing anti-government beliefs. On May 21, according to reports in the Lincoln News, fellow constitutionalists Gary Smart was arrested after an encounter with officers of the Lincoln Police Department.

After being pulled over for expired registration and inspection stickers on West Broadway in Lincoln, Smart apparently declared himself a “sovereign citizen” and refused to exit his pickup truck until a member of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department was present. (Sovereigns believe that elected sheriffs are the only legitimate law enforcement officials.) Local officers eventually removed Smart from the vehicle and placed him in handcuffs.

Smart was also later charged with operating without a license and violating the conditions of his release, according to the Lincoln News.

Smart, like McCarthy, is defending himself in court and has posted some of his legal submissions to his website. They contain textbook Sovereign Citizen rhetoric, including the misuse of legal terms, allegations that the government is illegitimate and quotes from bible verses and precedents from the 1800s that he says prove he is above the law.

Plea entered by man who threatened Voorhees judge

A man who identified with an extremist group that does not recognize governmental authority admitted in court Wednesday that he filed false liens against public officials and sent an e-mail to a municipal judge threatening financial ruin.

Michael Rinderle, 29, of Waukesha, Wis., has renounced the "sovereign citizen" movement, his lawyer said.

Rinderle pleaded guilty in Superior Court in Camden to a charge of threats and other improper influence in official and political matters and four counts of retaliation against a public official for past official conduct.

In return, he was sentenced to five years in state prison. He is being held in the Camden County Jail and will receive credit for time served beginning in late June.

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Rinderle, whose name also has been spelled Rinderele in court documents, was living in Medford Lakes with his wife, Joann Ellis, when she was stopped multiple times in the region in January 2013 for violations including driving with a suspended license and failure to register a vehicle. After Ellis was taken into custody, Rinderle e-mailed a Voorhees municipal judge on Sept. 26, 2013, attempting to get the charges dropped by threatening financial ruin.

The judge immediately charged him with threatening a public servant. Rinderle then filed a series of false liens against the judge and 27 other public officials, he admitted in court.

Those liens totaled more than $41 million, including $34,196,000 that Rinderle requested be paid to him in silver dollars. He knew the liens were false and illegal, he said in court.

Man who shot at officers, firefighters said he was starting new nation

A 60-year-old Corinth man who shot at officers and firefighters Monday in Far North Dallas espoused anti-government views and claimed to be starting his own nation called “Doug-E-Stan,” police said Tuesday.

Police say they had found no link between Douglas Lee LeGuin, a Corinth homeowner with no criminal past, and any specific anti-government groups or movements. There was also no clear link between LeGuin and the Far North Dallas house where police said he planned to “occupy” the new nation.

LeGuin was charged with seven counts of aggravated assault against a public servant. He was being held in Dallas County jail late Tuesday in lieu of $350,000 bail.

Maj. Jeff Cotner of the crimes against persons division said the whole incident was “somewhat surreal.”