Sam Jackson; "A Schema of Right-Wing Extremism in the United States" (ICCT Policy Brief 2019 ) "Over the past two years, and in the wake of deadly attacks in Charlottesville and Pittsburgh, attention paid to right-wing extremism in the United States has grown. Most of this attention focuses on racist extremism, overlooking other forms of right-wing … Continue reading A Schema of Right-Wing Extremism in the United States →

Sam Jackson; "Conspiracy Theories in the Patriot/Militia Movement" (2017) "This paper provides a primer on conspiracy theories in the patriot/militia movement. After introducing the movement, it describes the basic features of conspiracy theories. It then walks through several prominent and pervasive anti-government conspiracy theories, including those focusing on gun control, the Federal Emergency Management Agency … Continue reading Conspiracy Theories in the Patriot/Militia Movement →

J.M. Berger; "Without Prejudice: What Sovereign Citizens Believe" (2016) "When surveyed, United States law enforcement consistently ranks sovereign citizens as the top domestic extremist threat, even greater than that presented by homegrown jihadists. Despite the considerable size of the movement, estimated to include hundreds of thousands of adherents, few Americans know what sovereigns believe and … Continue reading Without Prejudice: What Sovereign Citizens Believe →

Michelle M. Mallek; "Uncommon law: understanding and quantifying the sovereign citizen movement" (2016) "This thesis examines possible reasons why some organizations overuse the term sovereign citizen. To do so, the thesis discusses various behaviors that sovereign citizens typically undertake, describes activities that the law enforcement community and researchers classify as sovereign citizen-related, and demonstrates the … Continue reading Uncommon law: understanding and quantifying the sovereign citizen movement →

Devon M. Bell; "The sovereign citizen movement: the shifting ideological winds" (2016) "The FBI has identified the Sovereign Citizen Movement (SCM) as a significant threat to the domestic security of the United States. The movement’s adherents are capable of significant acts of violence and creating civil unrest. They also embrace harassing tactics such as filing … Continue reading The sovereign citizen movement: the shifting ideological winds →

Mellie Ligon; "The Sovereign Citizen Movement: A Comparative Analysis with Similar Foreign Movements and Takeaways for the United States Judicial System" 35 Emory Int'l L. Rev. 297 (2021). "The Moorish Sovereign Citizens Movement began as an offshoot of the overarching Sovereign Citizens Movement in the United States in the 1990s by former followers of the … Continue reading The Sovereign Citizen Movement: A Comparative Analysis with Similar Foreign Movements and Takeaways for the United States Judicial System →

Brian S. Slater; "The Sovereign Citizen Movement: An Empirical Study on the Rise in Activity, Explanations of Growth, and Policy Prescriptions" Law enforcement officials have yet to determine how many Sovereigns are active in the United States, where they are concentrated, or whether the movement is gaining adherents. This thesis addresses the dearth of information … Continue reading The Sovereign Citizen Movement: An Empirical Study on the Rise in Activity, Explanations of Growth, and Policy Prescriptions →

Francis X. Sullivan, J.D. “The Usurping Octopus of Jurisdictional Authority: The Legal Theories of the Sovereign Citizen Movement” (1999) University of Wisconsin Law School, Class of 2000; M.A., University of Maryland, 1990; B.S.F.S., Georgetown University, 1987) This 30 page analysis is a great introduction into the historical context and origins of what is today a … Continue reading The Usurping Octopus of Jurisdictional Authority: The Legal Theories of the Sovereign Citizen Movement →

The U.S. Anti-Defamation League, "The Lawless Ones: The Resurgence of the Sovereign Citizen Movement" (2012)  https://freemandelusion.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/lawless-ones-2012-edition-web-final.pdf . https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/documents/assets/pdf/combating-hate/Lawless-Ones-2012-Edition-WEB-final.pdf https://freemandelusion.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/lawless-ones-2012-edition-web-final.pdf

The National Center for State Courts, "The Anti-Government Movement Guidebook" (1999) https://freemandelusion.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/anti-gov_movement_guidebook.pdf . http://www.tulanelink.com/pdf/anti-gov_movement_guidebook.pdf https://freemandelusion.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/anti-gov_movement_guidebook.pdf

"The Sovereign Ascendant: Financial Collapse, Status Anxiety, and the Rebirth of the Sovereign Citizen Movement" by Edwin Hodge (Department of Sociology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada) As many scholars have noted, periods of economic or social unrest often bring about the growth or resurgence of extremist social movements on both the political left and … Continue reading The Sovereign Ascendant: Financial Collapse, Status Anxiety, and the Rebirth of the Sovereign Citizen Movement →

A growing resistance is related to a far-right movement that claims sheriffs must defy laws they believe are unconstitutional. Sheriffs around the country are refusing to enforce or are even actively resisting Covid-19 mask laws and lockdowns, while others have permitted or encouraged armed vigilantism in response to Black Lives Matter anti-racism protests. Critics say … Continue reading The principles of the Posse reemerge half a century later →

Winston Shrout One of the most prominent sovereign citizen gurus in the United States, a man whose videos and seminars have attracted thousands of people, and has been one of the most influential leaders of the Redemption Movement, is Winston Shrout. He expanded on Elvic’s redemption theory, creating the A4V money-for-nothing technique, while maintaining the … Continue reading Winston Shrout and Jordan Maxwell →

Another notable Sovereign Citizen group were the Montana Freemen, an anti-government Christian Patriot movement group based outside the town of Jordan, Montana. The members of the group referred to their land as "Justus Township" and had declared themselves no longer under the authority of any outside government. They became the center of public attention in … Continue reading The Montana Freeman →

This section attempts, among other things, to construct what in biology is called a phylogeny: a family tree of related existing species and their ancestors. This tool helps explain the interrelationships of those organisms and the selective pressures that led to their appearance, divergence, and extinction. This OPCA phylogeny traces the development of groups, false … Continue reading The Posse Comitatus and Roger Elvic →

Sovereign Citizens: An Introduction for Law Enforcement The U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Domestic Terrorism Operations Unit II, November 2010 Bulletin Download Sovereign Citizens: A Growing Domestic Threat to Law Enforcement The U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Domestic Terrorism Operations Unit and Domestic Terrorism Analysis Unit, September 2011 Bulletin Download Sovereign … Continue reading The United States Response →

Sovereign Citizen ideology, and therefore modern OPCA thought, is based on the white supremacist Christian Identity sect just as surely as Richard Butler's Aryan Nations and Thom Robb's Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The importance lay in its particular mix of racism, the Constitution, religion and common law, and it is these concepts that … Continue reading The white supremacist foundations of modern OPCA thought →