Welcome back to Legal Geek. This week, we look into the legitimacy of those who claim to be Free Inhabitants in the US in an effort to avoid government actions, based on a suggestion from listeners James and Robert.
https://archive.org/details/LegalGeekEp56
A couple of videos have recently gone viral regarding so-called Free Inhabitants, which are people living in the U.S. who believe they are not required to follow U.S. laws because they do not identify as American or state citizens. Tracking these videos back to the hub of the small movement at freeinhabitant.info, you will see quite the show of legal theories and advice for the prospective Free Inhabitant. But do these legal theories have any merit?
Let's start with the viral video of the young lady refusing to leave her car following an arrest by a police officer. During her arguments with the cop, she cites the Articles of Confederation. Which would be great to rely on if it hadn't been superseded by the U.S. Constitution back in the 1700's. Immediately on its face, her claims, which would be better presented in a court of law rather than to a police officer, simply have no merit in today's America, or even that America of the 1800's.
Perhaps she's not the best representative of this cause, however. Going back to the Free Inhabitant website, there are all kinds of tips and lists for giving notice to employers and the U.S. government that you decline government benefits of any kind so you do not have to pay taxes, how to avoid having a driver's license or license plates, and how to avoid admitting use of a social security number or any such benefits. But there's little behind this advice beyond cites to old English common law and again, the Articles of Confederation.
It's also a kind of variation of another similar movement against following the laws called the Sovereign Citizen movement, similar to a Freeman of the Land movement in Canada and Britain. These movements have also pointed to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which conferred benefits of U.S. citizenship on former slaves in exchange for various freedoms, as implicitly creating two types of citizens: U.S. citizens subject to the federal government and state citizens subject to common law only.
But while it's a great ideal to try and remove consent to federal jurisdiction by not using zip codes, voter registrations, birth certificates, marriage licenses, car registrations, etc., the reality is that the federal government inherently provides other benefits like protection and safety of the borders for everyone within the U.S., which cannot just be disclaimed. If you want to claim sovereignty, you need to really go buy an island and secede from whatever country it was in originally. Then you will really be on your own and not just a protestor of laws that are disliked.
These movements have fought in court and there are over 100 decisions that have denied the legitimacy of these claims. If there were any merit to Free Inhabitants, some smart trial attorney likely would have figured out the right legal theory by now.
The Bottom Line: thinking outside the box is not a bad thing, but if you actually want to be a sovereign citizen or free of government, you need to leave or secede from a country like the USA.
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Thanks for reading. Please provide feedback and legal-themed questions as segment suggestions to me on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy
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