Sovereign Citizens Make Pro Se Litigants Look Silly

Yes, I’ll say it: Sovereign citizens are cuckoo for cocoa puffs. They believe the U.S. government became a corporation and lost jurisdiction over its citizens in 1933 when the gold standard was dropped. As a result, every U.S. citizen is now his or her own “sovereign”. A sovereign citizen has to make a contract with that corporation – one governed by admiralty or maritime law – to grant the government any jurisdiction over their person. And since a sovereign citizen has made no such contract, no court orders apply to them.

It’s all so ridiculous. But what’s worse, some sovereign citizens have violently resisted the jurisdiction of law enforcement officials enforcing court judgments, serving arrest warrants, and making traffic stops. The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed the sovereign citizen movement as one of the most violent extremist groups in the country. While the Department of Homeland Security reports that most sovereign citizens are peaceful, they’ve also decided there’s more than enough reason to keep an eye on them.

Sovereign citizens are a problem for pro se litigants because no lawyer will risk his or her reputation (or worse, a disciplinary proceeding) by representing them, and here’s why: The basis for all property rights in the United States is a land dispute case, Johnson & Graham’s Lessee v. McIntosh, 21 U.S. 543 (1823). Johnson had bought land from a native tribe and McIntosh later bought the same land from the U.S. Congress. The Supreme Court ruled that no U.S. court could recognize the power of Indian tribes to sell land because it all belonged to the United States by dint of European conquest. And so regardless of the facts or the natural law, the court was required to quiet title to the property in favor of the party who’d bought it from the United States.

By the same token, no court of the United States can hear an argument that a U.S. citizen is sovereign — that a contract with the government is required to grant jurisdiction — even if that position had any basis in natural law. So sovereign citizens may as well quit with the nonsense.


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That’s not going to happen soon. These are folks who print their own passports and stamp their own license plates, for goodness sake. Beyond that silliness, sovereign citizens in court make all pro se litigants look silly. They’ve been guilty of everything from filing fraudulent tax returns to filing false liens against judges and prosecutors. They’ve ignored court orders to stop filing repetitive motions on the same issues using the same bad arguments. They’ve based legal positions on ancient cases that had been overturned by constitutional amendment and hadn’t been precedent for centuries.

I suspect many of these poor souls insist on asserting their sovereignty in court as a matter of principle, despite the lack of legal merit. But since they claim the courts lack jurisdiction, I wish they’d take their principles a bit further and just stay out of the courthouse completely. When they have to appear, they ought to at least bring some recognized law.

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Victoria Itsmysecret
September 23, 2023 9:59 pm

This was! Very ignorant article coming from a Democrat I’m sure. And Also a media reporter. Of course they would publish this. The government only allows what they want to be publish to brain wash society. Do your own research people, you’d be surprised what has all been hidden off of media!!!

S.E. Bound
Reply to  Victoria Itsmysecret
September 29, 2023 3:28 pm

Case in point. You, Victoria, are part and parcel of the problem that those of us with real cases and real issues before a court have to deal with in an ongoing basis. I am a professional researcher and I can guarantee that most, if not all, of what you have found is nothing more than confirmation bias that ultimately will serve no meaningful purpose to anyone, not even your conspiracy-laden rantings of a mad woman. Your time, ma’am, is better spent elsewhere and hopefully limited to only negatively impacting you. Leave the rest of us with functioning brains to do what we need to do without being weighed down by being lumped into a category with you. You should seek immediate professional mental help.

Justin Grabowski
Reply to  S.E. Bound
October 27, 2023 7:45 pm

I’m not even wasting my time with you. Clearly a plant; you’re either a cop or just some random NPC. You haven’t researched anything.
You will never see a video of a sovereign winning in court. They dont even bother me anymore but when they did I won every time. They pay me too.
Save your insults; you are beyond help with your indoctrination. Chattel slave and don’t even know it, you defend it.

Justin Grabowski
Reply to  Victoria Itsmysecret
October 27, 2023 7:25 pm

Right? I’m reading this and thinking “they are literally putting the truth out there and saying it’s conspiracy theory crazy talk!” For sure anyone calling themselves a S.C. doesn’t know what they’re doing by virtue of putting those 2 words together. Do you know how many times the Supreme Court has said the people are sovereign? The founding fathers knew we are sovereign. It is not easy to pull it off in court; I tell anyone if you aren’t prepared to potentially sit in jail at some point then this isn’t for you. All the “SovCit” fails on YouTube are of very misinformed very angry people. You will NEVER see the wins though. A sovereign will never make the argument in open court. The judge 100% knows what the real deal is and he knows when he’s got someone in front of him who knows. The judge’s prime directive is to not alarm the public. When I have gone into court I can let the judge know what’s what without raising suspicions and my name goes to the bottom and we handle the matter privately. Oh and the US is in fact a corporation and these are admiralty courts and you can challenge personal as well as subject matter jurisdiction. I have a case going right now where I’m getting pushback and they are going to regret it because I know how to sue in their private capacity; I have a fee schedule on record and I know how to do an Administrative Process. All crimes are commercial; a charge is nothing but a debt that needs to be settled. They hold your body as surety for the all caps name. There are no criminal courts anymore. I could drop knowledge for days on this.

Chris
Reply to  Justin Grabowski
December 19, 2023 9:21 pm

I really would like some good solid info about taking back me soverinity. I mean, what impact would it have on my children, how can it help me with getting them, and my house back through a nasty divorce. My lawyer is costing me a fortune I don’t have

Justin Grabowski
October 27, 2023 7:49 pm

This article got one thing right; no US Citizen is sovereign. If you knew what being a US citizen really meant, you’d do what I do and not use it. Yes I said that right. Not use it. It’s not YOU; just a transmitting utility to do commerce in the public. I parked mine.
I can’t wait for the hateful comments. I laugh while
you get your paycheck whacked up before you see it and obey the road pirates.

Kyle
November 10, 2023 7:50 pm

Yea, wish I had a better understanding of the administrative side of things for my case. Probably not much I can do at this point in time. Dui case, pretrial in 2 weeks. 3rd offense despite being 15 years since my last offense and my first offense being when I was 19.
There’s a lot of administrative process involved to my knowledge. Just finding the proper forms and affidavits is a nightmare for anyone to sift thru.

jacqueline manzano
December 5, 2023 8:45 pm

The term “Sovereign Citizen” is a BS term and is the most ludicrous term I have ever heard. Its impossible to be a Sovereign Citizen, as one title cancels out the other. Simply put, You are either “Sovereign” or you are a “Citizen,” one cannot be both at the same time. Any how, who in the world would want to be identified or labeled as a “Sovereign Citizen?”
Oh well, reality is whatever someone thinks it is, and anything can happen in a cartoon!!