A&E has released another "Top 5 Sovereign Citizen Moments" video, and it is pure gold. "Sovereign Citizens" are folks that reject the government of the United States authority over them because they heard something crazy on a podcast, or around a fire where they howl at the moon like a wolf, embrace their virility, and reject the rule of law.
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 (such as writing specific phrases on bills they do not want to pay) and loopholes can make one immune from government laws and regulations.[6] They also regard most forms of taxation as illegitimate.[7] Sovereign citizen arguments have no basis in law and have never been successful in court.[3][6]
The movement may appeal to people facing financial or legal difficulties, or wishing to resist perceived government oppression, and looking for a mechanism that will solve their problems. As a result, it has grown significantly during times of economic or social crisis.[8] Most schemes promoted by sovereign citizens involve means to avoid taxes, ignore laws, eliminate debts or extract money from the government.[3]
American participants in the movement claim that the United States federal government is illegitimate.[3] They argue the concept of individual sovereignty in opposition to the idea of "federal citizens", who, they say, have unknowingly forfeited their rights by accepting some aspect of federal law.[9] Their foreign analogues hold similar beliefs about the government of their own countries. The movement can be traced back to American far-right groups like the Posse Comitatus and the constitutionalist wing of the militia movement.[10] But while the sovereign citizen movement was originally associated with white supremacism and antisemitism, it now includes people of various ethnicities, most commonly Whites and African Americans.[3] The latter sometimes belong to self-declared Moorish sects.[11]
Bonus:
Image: screen grab
