Sovereign citizen movement: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

Tag: Reverted

Tag: Reverted

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{{see also|Self-ownership}}

American sovereign citizens posit that contemporary [[Citizenship of the United States|United States citizenship]] is somehow defective or fraudulent and that it curtails citizens' legitimate rights. Some sovereign citizens also claim that they can become immune to most or all laws of the United States by [[Relinquishment of United States nationality|renouncing citizenship]] inat athe "federal corporation"level ([[Relinquishment_of_United_States_nationality|Expatriation)]] and declaring onlycitizenship to be a citizen ofat the [[U.S. state|state]] where they reside:level. thisThis process, which they refer to as "expatriation", involves [[Filing (law)|filing]] or delivering a nonlegalletter or document claiming their renunciation and declaration of citizenship to any county clerk's office that can be convinced to accept it.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Morton |first=Tom |date=April 17, 2011 |title=Sovereign citizens renounce first sentence of 14th Amendment |work=[[Casper Star-Tribune]] |url=http://trib.com/news/local/casper/sovereign-citizens-renounce-first-sentence-of-th-amendment/article_a5d0f966-7ed0-549f-a066-b1b2c91f9489.html |url-status=live |access-date=January 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160121140213/http://trib.com/news/local/casper/sovereign-citizens-renounce-first-sentence-of-th-amendment/article_a5d0f966-7ed0-549f-a066-b1b2c91f9489.html |archive-date=January 21, 2016}}</ref>

In the 1970s, one of the movement's originators, [[white supremacist]] ideologue [[William Potter Gale]], identified the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]] as the act that converted "sovereign citizens" into "federal citizens" by their agreement to a contract to accept benefits from the federal government. Other commentators have identified other acts, including the [[Emergency Banking Act]],<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Kermit |title=The Oxford Companion to American Law |last2=Clark |first2=David Scott |year=2002}}</ref> and the alleged suppression of the [[Titles of Nobility Amendment]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=William C. |date=November 1996 |title=The Law According to Barefoot Bob |journal=[[ABA Journal]]|volume=82 |page=112 |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/abaj82&div=270&id=&page=}}</ref>