The Cult of the Sovereign Citizen

In 1997, a distressed father in Missouri insisted that a judge lacked jurisdiction over his custody case simply because the courtroom flag flew a so-called “maritime flag of war.” In his view, the flag meant the court was under “admiralty law,” not civil law. Therefore, he claimed, the judge had no authority to rule on his family matters.

It sounds absurd to any trained attorney (indeed, federal courts have called these arguments “totally frivolous”). Yet these scenes play out in courts around the United States with alarming regularity. Why does this “magical” legal thinking persist?