In the United States the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) describes sovereign citizens as 'anti-government extremists who believe that even though they physically reside in this country, they are separate or 'sovereign' from the United States'. The movement, which appeared in the early 1970s, is American in origin and exists primarily in the United States, though it has expanded to other countries: the freeman on the land movement, an offshoot of the sovereign citizen movement with similar doctrines, emerged during the 2000s in Canada before spreading to other Commonwealth countries. Sovereign citizens claim to be answerable only to their particular interpretations of the common law and believe that they are therefore not subject to any government statutes or proceedings, unless they consent to them. The sovereign citizen movement (also SovCit movement or SovCits) is a loose grouping of litigants, activists, tax protesters, financial scheme promoters, and conspiracy theorists who adhere to pseudolegal concepts. Anti-government, anti-taxation conspiracy theoristsĮxample illustration of a sovereign citizen homemade ' license plate'
