In the 1970s (per the BBC), a group of white supremacists banded together under the name of Posse Comitatus, led by William Potter Gale, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. For the most part, they were a particularly abhorrent alliance of racist, antisemitic, and anti-government vigilantes who acted by their own “common” laws. Yet, as their ideology spread, so did its foundation. In the U.S., there are two conspiracy theories, often interchangeable, that are commonly found at the center of the sovereign citizen movement’s beliefs.
First, as detailed by the UNC School of Government, is the idea that the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution created two tiers of citizens: sovereign and federal. The latter are said to have been bound to the government by contract, thus negating their access to the benefits and protections of the U.S. Constitution. But by severing any connection with the government, such as driver’s licenses or taxes — which are considered contracts — it is claimed that the sovereign class of citizen can be reclaimed, with all its constitutional freedoms.
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The other predominant conspiracy theory is a little more complex, but no less bizarre. Supposedly, in the 1930s, the U.S. severed the dollar from the gold standard, which left the U.S. dollar without anything to back it. So instead, the U.S. government put its own citizenry up as collateral, with each person being assigned a U.S. Treasury trust fund under their government-assigned legal name. Each person, therefore, with their assigned “fortune,” is an asset upon which the U.S. dollar is pinned.
