Freemen, Sovereign Citizens, and the Challenge to Public Order in British
Heritage Countries
Stephen A. Kent
Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Canada
Abstract1
Throughout the English-speaking world, an
extremist antigovernment movement comprising
unknown thousands of people and numerous
particular groups is rejecting the authority of
law enforcement, the courts, and banking. Two
such groups that are receiving increased
attention from law enforcement and the media
are called the Freemen and Sovereign Citizens,
and boundaries between these two groups (and
several others) are fluid. Sociologically,
Freemen and Sovereign Citizens have their
origins back with American racist and radical
antigovernment movements in the 1960s and
1970s. They gathered greater support during the
American farm crisis during the late 1970s and
1980s, and also during an interest-rate crisis in
the United States and Canada during the same
period. Psychologically, some members may
adopt these groups’ ideologies because of
personality disorders that skew the members’
perceptions of self in relation to the world. In
any case, because adherents see the state as a
corporation with no authority over free citizens,
members are belligerent toward any authority
figures such as police, judges, park rangers, tax
collectors, and court clerks whom they see as
state agents. American police have had several
deadly exchanges with members, and Canadian
courts have issued two long decisions
concerning them and their “paper terrorism”
tactics (i.e., flooding courts with bogus,
Freemen-generated “legal” documents).
Variously claiming authority from the Bible,
British common law, and international maritime
law, Freemen and Sovereign Citizens
1 I presented this paper at the European Federation of Centres of
Research and Information on Sectarianism (FECRIS),
Copenhagen, Denmark (May 30, 2013). I presented an earlier
version of the paper at the International Cultic Studies
Association’s annual conference in Montreal, Canada on July 6,
2012.
throughout the English-speaking world have
connected through the Internet and now have
non-North American adherents in the United
Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
Introduction
Antigovernment sentiments in North America
cover a wide spectrum of beliefs and actions.
They range from critical comments among
friends to public statements of displeasure, to
social protest, to individuals actively training to
fight against government forces, to criminal
attacks against government property and
politicians. Among the most extreme and
sometimes violent of the antigovernment groups
are ones variously called the Freemen2 or
Sovereign Citizens, all of whose adherents
believe that existing government is illegitimate
and holds no legal authority over them.
Comprising largely middle-aged or older males
(Anti-Defamation League, 2010, p. 11),3 these
groups have been disrupting law enforcement
and judicial procedures for decades, and recently
have caught again the attention of scholars and
the media (not the least because of their
heightened exposure on the Internet and the
violent actions of some adherents, primarily in
the United States). With a considerable degree
2 The terms Freemen and Freeman both occur in reference to these
groups in the literature and common usage, and vary depending on
local usage and history of the respective groups.
3 MacNab (2011, p. 12) broke down the generational appeal of the
different Freemen and Sovereign Citizen-related groups as follows:
“Sovereigns over the age of 60 most likely joined the movement
following a personal bankruptcy or argument with government tax
collectors. Those in the 35 to 60 year old age group likely joined
when they ran into trouble with a mortgage foreclosure or other
debt problem. The youngest and newest recruits are either 1)
children of sovereigns who were indoctrinated into this absurd
belief system by their family, or 2) they were introduced to the
belief system through an online conspiracy source such as the
‘9/11 Truth Movement.’ This last group believes that the Bush
administration was secretly behind the tragic events of 911.”
International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 6, 2015 1
Heritage Countries
Stephen A. Kent
Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Canada
Abstract1
Throughout the English-speaking world, an
extremist antigovernment movement comprising
unknown thousands of people and numerous
particular groups is rejecting the authority of
law enforcement, the courts, and banking. Two
such groups that are receiving increased
attention from law enforcement and the media
are called the Freemen and Sovereign Citizens,
and boundaries between these two groups (and
several others) are fluid. Sociologically,
Freemen and Sovereign Citizens have their
origins back with American racist and radical
antigovernment movements in the 1960s and
1970s. They gathered greater support during the
American farm crisis during the late 1970s and
1980s, and also during an interest-rate crisis in
the United States and Canada during the same
period. Psychologically, some members may
adopt these groups’ ideologies because of
personality disorders that skew the members’
perceptions of self in relation to the world. In
any case, because adherents see the state as a
corporation with no authority over free citizens,
members are belligerent toward any authority
figures such as police, judges, park rangers, tax
collectors, and court clerks whom they see as
state agents. American police have had several
deadly exchanges with members, and Canadian
courts have issued two long decisions
concerning them and their “paper terrorism”
tactics (i.e., flooding courts with bogus,
Freemen-generated “legal” documents).
Variously claiming authority from the Bible,
British common law, and international maritime
law, Freemen and Sovereign Citizens
1 I presented this paper at the European Federation of Centres of
Research and Information on Sectarianism (FECRIS),
Copenhagen, Denmark (May 30, 2013). I presented an earlier
version of the paper at the International Cultic Studies
Association’s annual conference in Montreal, Canada on July 6,
2012.
throughout the English-speaking world have
connected through the Internet and now have
non-North American adherents in the United
Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
Introduction
Antigovernment sentiments in North America
cover a wide spectrum of beliefs and actions.
They range from critical comments among
friends to public statements of displeasure, to
social protest, to individuals actively training to
fight against government forces, to criminal
attacks against government property and
politicians. Among the most extreme and
sometimes violent of the antigovernment groups
are ones variously called the Freemen2 or
Sovereign Citizens, all of whose adherents
believe that existing government is illegitimate
and holds no legal authority over them.
Comprising largely middle-aged or older males
(Anti-Defamation League, 2010, p. 11),3 these
groups have been disrupting law enforcement
and judicial procedures for decades, and recently
have caught again the attention of scholars and
the media (not the least because of their
heightened exposure on the Internet and the
violent actions of some adherents, primarily in
the United States). With a considerable degree
2 The terms Freemen and Freeman both occur in reference to these
groups in the literature and common usage, and vary depending on
local usage and history of the respective groups.
3 MacNab (2011, p. 12) broke down the generational appeal of the
different Freemen and Sovereign Citizen-related groups as follows:
“Sovereigns over the age of 60 most likely joined the movement
following a personal bankruptcy or argument with government tax
collectors. Those in the 35 to 60 year old age group likely joined
when they ran into trouble with a mortgage foreclosure or other
debt problem. The youngest and newest recruits are either 1)
children of sovereigns who were indoctrinated into this absurd
belief system by their family, or 2) they were introduced to the
belief system through an online conspiracy source such as the
‘9/11 Truth Movement.’ This last group believes that the Bush
administration was secretly behind the tragic events of 911.”
International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 6, 2015 1
