What Are Sovereign Citizens?

Years ago, sovereign citizens proudly named themselves. They told us who they were. When interacting with police, the judicial system or other government authority, they quickly and repeatedly proclaimed themselves to be “sovereign citizens.” Older videos on YouTube will clearly show this to be true.

They were sovereign citizens. They told us who they were. We believed them. We had no reason not to believe them. They told law enforcement, “you have no power over us.” “We cannot be stopped.” “We cannot be arrested.” “We cannot be tried.” Why? Simple, because they were “sovereign citizens.” After a few years, they denied being sovereign citizens. Why? Because it had been pointed out, repeatedly in the media, that the term sovereign citizen was an oxymoron. If you are sovereign, you can't be a citizen. If you are a sovereign, it is your country and you make the laws. You don't obey the laws; you make the laws. It's very different if you are a citizen of a country. You don't make the laws. You don't vote on the laws and there is a system of justice to punish you if you break the laws. So, you can't be both a sovereign and a citizen.

This contradiction, did not escape those who had once proudly called themselves sovereign citizens. Everything changed. They made a 180° turn. Now, they angrily denied being sovereign citizens. Thus began the era, that continues to this day, of “don't call me a sovereign citizen!” Though they no longer, want to be called sovereign citizens, police officers continue to call them sovereign citizens. They once introduced themselves and proudly proclaimed to the world that they were sovereign citizens. Police officers, judges, prosecutors, researchers, the media, none of them forgot their initial introduction to the group, nor the original name given and to this very day, continue to call them sovereign citizens.

Sovereign citizens don't like the name for two reasons. It is an embarrassing oxymoron, and also because the FBI has treated related anti-government extremism as a serious national-security concern. In a 2023 statement to The Washington Times, the FBI described the belief that residents are “immune from government authority and laws” as a form of violent anti-government or anti-authority extremism and called it “one of the FBI's top threats.” The ideology itself is protected speech and not illegal; investigations focus on those who commit or intend violence or other federal crimes. A 2014 nationwide survey of law enforcement agencies had likewise ranked sovereign citizens among the most serious terrorist threats facing their jurisdictions.

So, are they or aren't they sovereign citizens? How do we know if they are or aren't sovereign citizen? Do we give them a blood test? No. There is no blood test. How about a DNA test? There must be a DNA test. Nope, there is no DNA test. How about a legal definition? Surely, there must be some definition in the law? Nope, again there is no mention of sovereign citizens in any law. There is no legal definition. So how can we label someone a sovereign citizen?

There is an old philosophical adage, “as a thing acts, so it is.” Just as there is no legal definition to label someone a sovereign citizen, there is no legal definition, blood test or DNA test, to label someone a Democrat or a Republican. We can't open a law book and run down the list of checkmarks necessary to identify someone, as a Republican or a Democrat. Despite this, we use those terms all the time, every day. In essence, what we are saying is “if it acts like a Republican, it is a Republican.” Or, “if it acts like a Democrat, it is a Democrat.” That's what we do and that is perfectly sufficient for the labeling process. Could be wrong, a blood test would be better, DNA test even better than that.

Labels are good identifiers, not perfect, but perfectly sufficient to be used millions of times each and every day. Nobody voted on what traits, qualities, characteristics or attributes are necessary to label one a Democrat or Republican. It is just common usage, common vernacular.

The same is true of the label, sovereign citizen. No one voted on it, no committee was put together to research it. Congress didn't vote on it and no presidential signature was required. “Sovereign citizen” is just a descriptive label. If you call someone a sovereign citizen, it just means, someone who does not believe in the legitimacy of government. Someone who believes that government does not have the power to make laws. Someone who believes they don't have to pay taxes. Someone who believes they can drive 100 mph in a school zone, while preschoolers and kids in kindergarten, are trying to cross the street. They are above the laws of government because they are sovereign and they write their own laws. Not collectively, but individually. Each sovereign writes his own laws. If they steal your car, they cannot be arrested. If they break into your home, they cannot be arrested. If they shoot and kill everyone in your family…you can't do anything about it. They are just and simply, above the law. They'll tell you that to your face. They are above all law. There is no law they need to follow. They live outside the law. In essence, they are outlaws. They have made the conscious choice to step over the line, the one that separates law-abiding citizens from outlaws. Outlaws; those who choose to live, act, and operate outside of the law.

They are very litigious. They file papers with the court that are often hundreds of pages long. Most will go pro se and represent themselves in court. They are extremely disruptive to the courtroom. They combine pieces of criminal law with civil law. They form combinations of unrelated laws. They'll add together random, disparate terms, unrelated sections, all to produce nothing more than unique twisted combinations of nonsense. They don't succeed in the courtroom. Their tactics don't succeed.

In the cases I've studied over a decade of research, sovereign citizen legal theories have never succeeded on the merits.

If someone fits the characteristics listed above, they fit the label of sovereign citizen. You might ask, is a deeper proof possible for the labeling process? Let's answer that question facetiously. When you see a vehicle stopped by a police officer and when that officer approaches the driver's window and then asks the driver for their license, focus your attention and listen closely.

If the driver says “I wasn't driving, I was traveling,” you know you got one!