70 JANUARY 2020 ~ CARAND DRIVER
that the current government exists in
betrayal of the Constitution.
Though Seim rejects the sovereign
label and asserts an ideological divide
from it, he sympathizes with the cause,
espousing anti-government views as
a “liberty speaker.” His video is one of
many recorded interactions between
police and moralizing people attempt-
ing to take a stand against perceived
government overreach. For most of us, if
we know anything at all about the sover-
eign citizen movement, that knowledge
doesn’t extend much beyond the videos
of self-righteous provocateurs along the
roadside spewing legalistic gobbledy-
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And that’s for good reason. Accord-
ing to Sarah Seo, an associate professor
at the University of Iowa College of
Law and the author of Policing the Open
Road: How Cars Transformed American
Freedom: “It’s not at all surprising that
where sovereign citizens interact with
the police is in their cars. Almost all citi-
zens’ interactions with police take place
in the context of cars.”
On the road, sovereign thought is
expressed as the “right to travel.” In this,
acolytes believe that people don’t need
driver’s licenses, license plates, vehicle
registrations, or insurance to traverse
the country’s highways. To reach this
conclusion, sovereigns often draw a dis-
tinction between being able “to drive,”
which they say is the privilege of using a
vehicle to conduct commercial activity,
and being able “to travel,” which they
assert is a right inherent in the Constitution.
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sovereign-friendly explanation of the asserted right to
travel that runs some 30,000 words long, including cita-
tions. Multiple attempts to contact Trent Goodbaudy,
a writer who apparently runs the site, were unsuccess-
ful. But the online store linked to the site sells a set of
replacement license-plate tags proclaiming that the
vehicle is private, traveling without commercial pur-
pose, and not subject to insurance or licensing require-
ments. They cost C/D &&" ;\ [R V[ aUR \¦PR UN`
volunteered to mount them to their vehicle.
THE ORIGIN
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from is a varied and often perplexing matter,” writes
Caesar Kalinowski IV, a Seattle attorney who recently
confronted sovereign legal claims in the Montana Law
Review. “Sovereign Citizens often cite the U.S. Consti-
tution, the [Uniform Commercial Code], the Magna
Carta, the Articles of Confederation, and numerous
other quasi-legal documents to support their assertions.
Although authoritative sounding, the true basis for a citizen’s
constitutional rights is found in the Constitution itself. The
U.S. Supreme Court is the only legal body that can interpret
N[QTVcRYRTNYRßRPaa\aUR0\[`aVabaV\[.PP\_QV[TYf@\c-
ereign Citizens’ citation to—and reliance on—dictionaries,
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are misplaced and unavailing.”
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of this. Though he seems well informed, his interpretation
of the law is misguided. After the video went live, Grant
0 \b[af`UR_VßA\Z7\[R`a\\Xa\3NPRO\\Xa\Re]YNV[aUNa
even if the cruiser was in violation of the state law cited
by Seim, there’s no ticket to write or arrest to make. That
particular law requires such violations to be handled by an
agency head. It’s administrative. Nothing more.
“The internet has made it a lot easier for people to feel
they’re getting authoritative information, when in fact
it’s just some person sitting in their house espousing what
they believe,” Kalinowski says. And the ideolog y sprouts
from eccentric interpretations of the Constitution. It often
includes religious elements seasoned with minutiae from
ancient legal cases and broad appeals to individual freedom. PHOTOGRAPHBYMARC^ URBANOTHE ONLINE STORE LINKED TO THE SITE
SELLS A SET OF REPLACEMENT LICENSE-
PLATE TAGS PROCLAIMING THAT THE
VEHICLE IS PRIVATE, TRAVELING WITHOUT
COMMERCIAL PURPOSE, AND NOT SUBJECT
TO INSURANCE OR LICENSING
REQUIREMENTS. THEY COST C/D $39.95.