Free US Law Dictionary

Sovereign Citizen

The Sovereign Citizen Movement is a loosely organized collection of groups and individuals who have adopted an essentially-anarchist ideology. Its adherents believe that virtually all existing Federal government bodies in the United States are illegitimate. Those who subscribe to the movement seek to establish a minimalist government. "Sovereign citizens" often assert that they are not subject to any laws to which they have not specifically consented. Needless to say, such theories have met with no success in the courts.

This movement is based on theories that The People are either "Fourteenth Amendment citizens", who are subject to the federal and state laws and taxes, or "sovereign citizens", who possess a Birthright and constitutionally secured unalienable rights to Life, Liberty and Happiness (Property) over which the individual is Sovereign. Under this theory, the Sovereign American has sovereign authority only over that property which he or she lawfully owns, i.e., his or her Life, Body, Mind, Rights to Life, Liberty, and Property, material property i.e. housing, land, automobile, and all other property owned within the individual's private domain.

Some Sovereign Citizens claim to be subject only to common law or "constitutional law" (or both), not to statutory law. Under these theories, sovereign citizens are exempt from any laws while acting in their own private capacity and so long as they injure no one.[1] "Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rulemaking or legislation which would abrogate them". However upon injuring anothers property or when acting in some public capacity the Sovereign Citizen would be subject to statutory law as those acts exceed the Sovereign Citizens private domain and capacity. The use of Sovereign Citizen concepts in court has met with no success[2] (see Tax protester arguments). The Uniform Commercial Code plays an important part in these legal theories.

"Sovereign citizens" often avoid using zip codes, and refuse to hold social security cards or driver's licenses.

Some African-American groups have adopted Sovereign Citizen beliefs,[3] which sometimes include a distinction between the Corporation and the Government, which (under these theories) no longer operates in the traditional sense.