AVOIDING THE INEVITABLE: DEATH AND TAXES – UNDERSTANDING SOVEREIGN CITIZENS IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION

Author: Carolyn Chin, Associate Editor

In the wise words of one of the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, “Our Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” [i] We grew up knowing we cannot escape the IRS, but do you ever wonder what it would be like to live in a world where you simply did not pay your taxes? Fortunately this does not have to be a “live and learn” moment because there is a following of people that have these same thoughts and ideologies. However, this societal disengagement comes at a cost, as it may lead to worse legal repercussions and might even land you onto the FBI watchlist.

The term “sovereign citizen” is a catchall phrase, referring to a variety of anti-government individuals and groups who share common beliefs and behaviors.[ii] Although there are a variety of sovereign citizen organizations across the United States, many sovereign citizens do not affiliate with these groups.[iii] However, in one way or another, all sovereign citizens retain an individual common law identity under the view that existing American governmental structures (including the courts and law enforcement), are illegitimate. [iv] Sovereign citizens believe they are separate or “sovereign” from the United States, even though they physically reside in this country.[v]

The modern-day legal philosophies of sovereign citizens are crafted from on reinterpretations of archaic documents such as the Magna Carta and the Bible, selective reading practices of legal dictionaries, baseless interpretations of capitalization and punctuation, and conspiracy theories.[vi] Sovereign citizens believe that the American government established by the Founding Fathers under a common-law legal system was secretly replaced by admiralty law, which is the law of sea and international commerce.[vii] Some sovereigns believe this change occurred during the Civil War, while others blame the events of 1933, when the US abandoned the gold standard.[viii] Either way, sovereigns who hold this view stake their lives and livelihoods on the idea that US judges and lawyers, whom they believe are foreign agents, know about this hidden government takeover yet deny the sovereigns’ legal motions and filings out of treasonous loyalty to hidden and malevolent government forces.[ix]

Sovereign citizens are notorious for picking fights with local government and law enforcement.[x] They may issue their own driver’s license and vehicle tags, create and file their own liens against government officials who cross them, question judges about the validity of their oaths, challenge the applicability of traffic laws to them and, in extreme cases, resort to violence to protect their imagined rights.[xi] Usually after they have been ticketed for moving violations or unpaid taxes, they subvert the legal system to try to prove their claims.[xii] Although these encounters are usually harmless, they often lead to viral videos on the internet showing various law enforcement officials and judges castigating sovereign citizens for their nonsensical legal arguments and briefs.[xiii]

Other sovereign citizens engage in “paper terrorism,” which is an approach that involves filing false court documents against public officials.[xiv] They also often file fake tax forms that are designed to ruin an enemy’s credit rating and cause them to be audited by the IRS.[xv] For example, in the District Court of Middle District of Georgia, a sovereign citizen filed fraudulent tax returns in an attempt to steal over $117 million from taxpayers.[xvi] Additionally, sovereign citizens get their revenge on the government officials by burying courts in endlessly large paper filings.[xvii] These filings are filled with language developed by the sovereign citizens’ movement, trying to find the right combination of words, punctuations, paper, ink color, and timing, to escape compliance with current regulations.[xviii]

Due to their use of paper terrorism, sovereign citizens clog up the court system with frivolous lawsuits,[xix] severely burdening the courts and other government offices with the filings of hundreds of pages of nonsensical documents.[xx] Although most legal professionals are unlikely to run across working with a sovereign citizen, it is crucial that attorneys and the legal community begin to understand the sovereign citizen movement in order to better serve this niche, but also rapidly increasing community more effectively.[xxi] With better understanding of this movement, there is hope to cut down on the number of pro se litigants waging a futile war of misunderstood legal principals against frustrated prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges.[xxii]

Although it may be frustrating to represent or interact with a US citizen who claims to play by a different set of rules than the rest, it is important to ask why these once norm-abiding citizens now play for their own team.[xxiii] Often times, these sovereign citizens’ poor legal outcomes are partially due to their generally characterized “problematic” behavior in court.[xxiv] They have been known to disobey courtroom rules and judge orders, improperly object to motions, and demand the court to prove its jurisdiction over them.[xxv] Although these rebellious acts are intended to further the sovereigns’ goals, the reality is that their actions are going to lead to a creation of stricter legislation for filings and pro se litigants, and will ensure more government reach into their lives. Until sovereigns begin to rely on actual attorneys to help them achieve their goals, rather than attempting to hinder our legal system’s functionality, they are going to continue to see a trend of obtaining unsuccessful and undesirable results.

[i] National Constitution Center Staff, Benjamin Franklin’s Last Great Quote and the Constitution, National Constitution Center (Nov. 13, 2023), https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/benjamin-franklins-last-great-quote-and-the-constitution.

[ii] Michael Crowell, A Quick Guide to Sovereign Citizens, University of North Carolina School Government Administration of Justice Bulletin (Nov. 2015), https://www.sog.unc.edu/sites/www.sog.unc.edu/files/reports/aojb1504.pdf.

[iii] Id.

[iv] Id.

[v] Holly Christensen, The Uses and Abuses of the Judicial System, Penn St. L. Rev.: F. Blog (Apr. 21, 2022), http://www.pennstatelawreview.org/the-forum/sovereign-citizens-the-uses-and-abuses-of-the-judicial-sy/.

[vi] Id.

[vii] Sovereign Citizens Movement, S. Poverty L. Ctr., https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/sovereign-citizens-movement (last visited, Mar. 3, 2024).

[viii] Id.

[ix] Id.

[x] Christensen, supra note v.

[xi] Crowell, supra note ii.

[xii] Christensen, supra note v.

[xiii] Id.

[xiv] Id.

[xv] Sovereign Citizens Movement, supra note vii.

[xvi] Id.

[xvii] Id.

[xviii] Id.

[xix] Domestic Terrorism, The Sovereign Citizen Movement, Federal Bureau of Investigation (Apr. 13, 2010), https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2010/april/sovereigncitizens_041310/domestic-terrorism-the-sovereign-citizen-movement.

[xx] Crowell, supra note ii.

[xxi] Elliott J. H. Abromeit, Sovereign Citizens: Losing the Game by Refusing to Play, University of Iowa Journal of Gender, Race, & Justice (Sept. 22, 2023), https://jgrj.law.uiowa.edu/news/2023/09/sovereign-citizens-losing-game-refusing-play#:~:text=Although%20it%20can%20be%20an%20almost%20jarring%20experience,this%20niche%20but%20rapidly%20increasing%20community%20more%20effectively.

[xxii] Id.

[xxiii] Id.

[xxiv] Id.

[xxv] Id.