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BeforeThe Sovereign Citizens movement represents one of the most persistent anti-government ideologies in American politics, gaining significant digital organizing capabilities since the 1990s. The movement promotes the belief that individuals can declare themselves sovereign from federal and state government authority through various pseudolegal processes and documents. ## Movement Evolution **1970s-1990s: Origins and Early Development** The movement emerged from the Posse Comitatus organization and Christian Identity groups, initially spreading through printed materials, shortwave radio, and …

AfterSovereign citizens are a loosely affiliated anti-government movement whose central belief is that the authority of the United States government does not lawfully apply to them. Adherents assert this through documents: filings, liens and claims constructed from a private legal vocabulary that courts do not recognize. ## Paper terrorism The practice the movement is best known for is what the literature calls "paper terrorism" — filing frivolous pseudolegal claims, often for large sums and often against government officials the filer believes has wronged them. It is a tactic that imposes real …