what is sovereign citizen

The sovereign citizen movement is a loosely organized group of individuals and groups who share some common beliefs and behaviors. They believe that they are not under the jurisdiction of the federal government and consider themselves exempt from U.S. law. Sovereign citizens may appeal to people facing financial or legal difficulties or wishing to resist perceived government oppression. The movement has grown significantly during times of economic or social crisis. Sovereign citizen arguments have no basis in law and have never been successful in any court. Most schemes promoted by sovereign citizens are ways to avoid paying taxes, ignore laws, eliminate debts, or extract money from the government. Sovereign citizens may prefer to label themselves as "state nationals", "constitutionalists", "freemen", "natural people", "living people", "private persons", or as people "seeking the Truth" or "living on the land". Sovereign citizen ideology is grounded in a conspiracy which purports that the U.S. government illegitimately rules over the American people. Sovereign citizens tend to believe that the government, originally set up by the Founding Fathers under a common-law legal system, was secretly replaced by a federal ‘corporate’ government based on a maritime law. Sovereign citizens constitute a large and energetic extremist group.