Sovereign Citizens

Sovereign Citizens was a concept adopted and refined by the Founding Fathers of the the United States of America from comtempory theories on natural law and the nature of government structures. Some authors draw a distinction between the US Founding Fathers, who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 or participated in the Revolution, and the Framers of the US Constitution, who drafted the United States Constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation, in 1787.[1] That distinction is not made in this article.

The word sovereignty refers to supreme power, especially over the body politic. Until the founding of the American Republic, the supreme power of each country was vested in one or a few persons, such as kings and queens, dictators and the Roman Ceasars and Triumvirates. Their powers were absolute and exclusive. A person or persons was vested with Sovereignty by conquest, inheritance or election by elites or the general populace.

The American Revolution came during a time when many philosophers and politicians were analyzing and studying the nature of their various governments. Among the persons involved in shaping the future government of America were Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Ethan Allen and Benjamin Franklin. The Founding Fathers were motivated by an extreme desire to make sense out of new "nature of democracy" and "natural law" concepts of thought that were emerging during this era. Their desire was to create a government that would be an "an example to be followed" [2] [3][4] [5] Sovereign citizenship is a refinement of popular sovereignty[6] [7].

Prior to the creation of the the final version of the American government, sovereignty had rested in the hands of the one or the few. With the final version of the American Republic, the 10th Amendment said,"The Tenth Amendment restates the Constitution's principle of Federalism by providing that powers not granted to the national government nor prohibited to the states are reserved to the states or the people." [8]

The American republican form of government acknowledges that the sovereign power is founded in the people, individually, not in the collective or whole body of free citizens, as in a democratic form. Thus no majority can deprive a minority of their sovereign rights and powers.

By virtue of their vote, United States citizens are the sovereigns of the country and the elected officials are supposed to be their servants. By virtue of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights [9], certain rights are inalienable and no elected official nor group of people can abridge them except in criminal proceedings and/or during times of concern for national security. [10]

These elements of sovereignty not being vested in one or a few persons but rather in the individual, gave rise to the then new American form of government becoming known elsewhere in the world as "The Great American Experiment" [11]

The Concept of Sovereign Citizens referenced here refers only the right to vote giving US citizens sovereignty over the politicians and retention of rights that cannot be permanently removed by elected persons or democratic majority (except as delineated above).

Sovereign Citizen as used here refers to the concept and meaning as meant by the Founding Fathers of the USA. The term "Sovereign Citizens" as used here, specifically does not refer to the radical interpretation of some considerably conservative groups that express desires to reform the current American government to a system more closely bound to the original concept as defined in the US Constitution.

The concept of Sovereign Citizenship has been the subject of recent controversy.

See also

• American Revolution
• Natural Law
• Founding_fathers#United_States
• Tenth Amendment
• Bill of Rights
• Constitution

Controversial Patriotism movements involved in the debate regarding modern interpretations of American Sovereign Citizenship:

• Posse Comitatus
• Montana Freemen
• Self-ownership