Comments on: The “sovereign citizen” cult

By: Chris M.

Chris M. — Thu, 08 May 2014 11:24:59 +0000

Sea lawyer is a 19th century British term which refers to educated men who (usually because of debt, which was imprisonable at the time but for which you could not be arrested on board a ship) ended up as part of the ordinary crew of a ship, especially a warship.

These men were accused of using their education to persuade the rest of the crew (who were generally semi-literate) to question orders and sometimes to munity.

I think this fits pretty well with the leaders of these sovereign citizen movements.

By: wfjag

wfjag — Wed, 07 May 2014 17:12:39 +0000

If you deal with any members of the sovereign citizen movements, do not take them lightly. Some of them are very dangerous. I recently attended a domestic terrorism training class. One of the presenters was the Chief of Police, West Memphis, Ark. His son, and another West Memphis PD officer, pulled over a white van for a traffic violation. The occupants were a father and son, sovereign citizen team, who were transporting automatic weapons. The policemen were executed (while the dash-cam recorded it). The van was later stopped in a mall parking lot, where a fire-fight ensued.

Unlike most of the threats lawyers receive — from angry opponents blowing off steam — if you deal with someone associated with one of these movements (there are several, which have loose or less associations), take the threat seriously. While most of the people who subscibe to the movements are, at worst, pain in the butt cranks, there is a dangerous fringe.

By: Walter Olson

Walter Olson — Wed, 07 May 2014 14:07:11 +0000

Thanks. “Sea lawyer” calls up (for me at least) a distinct picture of someone railing on without fear of being disproved because in a ship on the high seas it would have been impossible for listeners to look up the actual law to check what he was saying.

By: Raymond Reichelt

Raymond Reichelt — Wed, 07 May 2014 13:33:16 +0000

These sovereign citizens remind me of an English phrase, “sea lawyer” which the Oxford English Dictionary describes as:

An eloquently and obstinately argumentative person: ‘one of those mouthy sea lawyers full of pseudo-intellectual yammer’

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/sea-lawyer