Strawman theory

{{see also|Redemption movement|Sovereign citizen movement|Freeman on the land movement}}

The theory appeared circa 1999–2000, when it was conceived by North Dakota farmer turned pseudolegal activist Roger Elvick. A sovereign citizen and tax protester, Elvick was already the primary originator of the redemption movement. The strawman theory overlapped with those of the redemption movement: it eventually became a core concept of sovereign citizen ideology, as it connected their pseudolegal beliefs through an overarching explanation. Around the same period, this set of beliefs was introduced into Canada by Eldon Warman, a student of Elvick's theories who adapted them for a Canadian context. It was further reframed in Canada by the freeman on the land movement, which expanded to other Commonwealth countries.{{cite conference|last=Netolitzky|first=Donald J. |title=A Pathogen Astride the Minds of Men: The Epidemiological History of Pseudolaw|date=24 May 2018|work=Sovereign Citizens in Canada symposium|publisher=CEFIR|url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3177472|ssrn=3177472|doi=10.2139/ssrn.3177472|access-date=23 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201223201401/https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3177472|archive-date=23 December 2020|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}

{{see also|Pseudolaw|Tax protester conspiracy arguments}}

The theory holds that an individual has two personas. One of them is a physical, tangible human being, and the other is the legal person, often referred to as a legal fiction. When a baby is born in the U.S., a birth certificate is issued, and the parents apply for a Social Security number. Sovereigns say the government uses that birth certificate to set up a secret Treasury account which it funds with an amount ranging from $600,000 to $20 million, depending on the particular sovereign belief system. Hence, every newborn's rights are split between those held by the flesh-and-blood baby and the corporate shell account.

One argument used by proponents of the strawman theory is based on a misinterpretation of the term capitis deminutio, used in ancient Roman law for the extinguishment of a person's former legal capacity. Adherents to the theory spell the term "Capitis Diminutio", and claim that capitis diminutio maxima (meaning, in Roman law, the loss of liberty, citizenship, and family) was represented by an individual's name being written in capital letters, hence the idea of individuals having a separate legal personality.{{cite news |last1=Weill |first1=Kelly |title=Republican Lawmaker: Recognize Sovereign Citizens or Pay $10,000 Fine |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/republican-lawmaker-recognize-sovereign-citizens-or-pay-dollar10000-fine |newspaper=The Daily Beast |date=4 January 2018 |access-date=14 June 2018}}

The strawman theory is coupled with the belief that the government is actually a corporation. Said corporation is supposedly bankrupt and uses its citizens as collateral against foreign debt. After each person's strawman is created through their birth certificate, a loan is taken out in the name of the strawman. The proceeds are then deposited into the secret government account associated with the fictitious person’s name.{{citation |title= Without Prejudice: What Sovereign Citizens Believe |work= |publisher= George Washington University |first1= JM |last1= Berger |date= June 2016 |url= https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/downloads/JMB%20Sovereign%20Citizens.pdf|access-date= 2024-04-01 |archive-date= |archive-url= |url-status= }}

Proponents of the theory believe the evidence is found on the birth certificate itself. Because many certificates show all capitals to spell out a baby's name, JOHN DOE (under the Strawman theory) is the name of the "straw man", and John Doe is the baby's "real" name. As the child grows, most legal documents will contain capital letters, which means that his state-issued driver's license, his marriage license, his car registration, his criminal court records, his cable TV bill, correspondence from the IRS, etc., pertain to his strawman and not his sovereign identity. In reality, the use of all capital letters is typically done to make certain statements clear and conspicuous, although this is not always the case.{{citation |title= The Sovereigns: Leaders of the Movement |work= Intelligence Report |publisher = Southern Poverty Law Center |date= August 1, 2010 |url= https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2010/sovereigns-leaders-movement |access-date= 2020-06-21}}

The theory is also based in part on a misinterpretation of the Uniform Commercial Code, which provides an interstate standard for documents such as driver's licenses or for bank accounts: adherents to the theory see this as evidence that these documents, and the associated laws and financial obligations, do not apply to them, but instead to the "straw man".

To distinguish themselves from their "strawman", pseudolaw advocates may refer to their "flesh and blood" identity under by a slightly different name, such as "John of the family Doe" instead of "John Doe".[https://web.archive.org/web/20131216185721/http://judiciary.sut1.co.uk/docs/benchmark/benchmark_feb2012.pdf "Nonsense or loophole?"], Benchmark, Issue 57, February 2012, pp 18–19 One scheme, notably advocated by sovereign citizen theorist David Wynn Miller, involves adding punctuation—typically hyphens and colons—to one's name: Miller would write his name as :David-Wynn: Miller or David-Wynn: Miller{{Cite web |title= Screw the Taxman: The Weird Ideas of Tax Cheaters |publisher= DigitalJournal.com |date= April 24, 2006 |url= https://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-science/screw-the-taxman-the-weird-ideas-of-tax-cheaters/article/36197|access-date= December 27, 2021}} and verbally said it "David hyphen Wynn full colon Miller".

File:Legal_Name_Fraud_poster.jpg

A variation of the strawman theory is found in the "legal name fraud" movement, which believes that birth certificates give the state legal ownership of a personal name and that refusing to use this name removes oneself from the state's authority and a court's jurisdiction.{{cite web|last1=Dalgleish|first1=Katherine|title=Guns, border guards, and the Magna Carta: the Freemen-on-the-Land are back in Alberta courts|url=https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=018e9df4-b9fe-4c88-9db9-d784f423348c|website=lexology.com|date=14 March 2014 |publisher=Lexology|access-date=January 4, 2018}}{{cite news|last1=Kelly|first1=John|title=The mystery of the 'legal name fraud' billboards|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36499750|access-date=January 4, 2018|work=BBC News|date=June 11, 2016}}

Russell Porisky, a Canadian tax protester who emulated Eldon Warman's ideas, promoted a version of the strawman theory by claiming that people could avoid paying taxes by proclaiming themselves to be "natural persons", in opposition to the government's version of a "person".{{Cite news |url= https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/russell-porisky-anti-tax-crusader-chilliwack-1.3709094 |title=B.C. anti-tax crusader sentenced to 5½ years |date=August 5, 2016|access-date= July 16, 2022 |work=CBC}} His concepts relied on a misinterpretation of the definition of a "person" in section 248(1) of the Canadian Income Tax Act, which he combined with the strawman theory.{{cite journal |last=Netolitzky |first=Donald J. |title=The History of the Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Argument Phenomenon in Canada |url=https://www.canlii.org/en/commentary/doc/2016CanLIIDocs55 |url-status=live |journal=Alberta Law Review |publisher=Alberta Law Review Society |volume=53 |issue=3 |date=2016 |access-date=23 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201223212946/https://www.canlii.org/en/commentary/doc/2016CanLIIDocs55 |archive-date=23 December 2020}} Porisky was convicted in 2012 of tax evasion{{Cite news |url= https://bc.ctvnews.ca/tax-dodging-guru-convicted-on-evasion-charges-1.755974 |title=Tax-dodging guru convicted on evasion charges |last=Lindsay |first=Bethany |date=January 19, 2012|access-date= July 16, 2022 |work=CTV News}} and was sentenced in 2016 to five and a half years in prison.{{Cite news |url= https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-russell-porisky-pseudolegal-theories-anti-mask-1.5943082 |title=As anti-tax guru's fines go unpaid, his bogus ideas are revived in COVID-19 conspiracy circles |last=Lindsay |first=Bethany |date=March 11, 2021 |access-date= July 16, 2022 |work=CBC}}

Believers of the theory also extend it to law and legal responsibilities, claiming that only their strawman is required to adhere to statutory laws. They also claim that legal proceedings are taken against strawmen rather than persons and when one appears in court they appear as representing their strawman. The justification for this is the false notion that governments cannot force anybody to do anything. A strawman is therefore created which the adherent believes he or she is free to command. Proponents cite a misinterpretation of a passage in chapter 39 of King John's Magna Carta stating in part that, "no freeman will be seized, dispossessed of his property, or harmed except by the law of the land”.{{cite web |title=Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor |url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/magna-carta-muse-and-mentor/due-process-of-law.html |website=loc.gov |date=6 November 2014 |access-date=15 June 2018}}

Adherents to the theory believe that separating from their strawman or refusing to be identified as such enables escape from their legal liabilities and responsibilities. This is typically attempted by denying they are a 'person' in the same way as their strawman, or by writing their name in non-standard ways, using red ink, and placing finger prints on court documents. The use of thumbprints and signatures in red ink, in particular, is meant to distinguish "flesh and blood" people from the "strawman", since black and blue inks are believed to indicate corporations.{{cite web |last1=Williams |first1=Jennifer |title=Why some far-right extremists think red ink can force the government to give them millions |url=https://www.vox.com/2016/2/9/10942860/sovereign-citizens-movement |website=vox.com |date=9 February 2016 |access-date=15 June 2018}} The theory also holds that even after "removing" their strawman, people must remain cautious and take steps to avoid recognizing the validity of government regulations, which would make them succumb to another "invisible contract", experience "joinder" and thus fall back under government authority.

The belief in the strawman articulates with the redemption movement's fraudulent debt and tax payment schemes, which imply that money from the secret account (known in some variations of the theory as a "Cestui Que Vie Trust"{{citation |title=Sovereign Citizens and QAnon: The Increasing Overlaps with a Focus on Child Protective Service (CPS) Cases |work=International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation (IJCAM) |date=May 21, 2023|first1=Christine M. |last1=Sarteschi|url=https://www.ijcam.org/articles/sovereign-citizens-and-qanon|access-date= 2023-05-24}}) can be used to pay one's taxes, debts and other liabilities by simply writing phrases like "Accepted for Value" or "Taken for Value" on the bills or collection letters, or that the strawman's funds are accessible through the use of certain forms and securities. Such schemes are commonly known as A4V. By attempting to test this aspect of the theory, one may commit various forms of fraud and face criminal charges.{{citation |title= The Sovereigns: A Dictionary of the Peculiar |work= |publisher = Southern Poverty Law Center |date= August 1, 2010 |url= https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2010/sovereigns-dictionary-peculiar|access-date= 2022-01-20}}{{Citation|title=The Sovereign Citizen Movement. Common Documentary Identifiers & Examples|date= 2016 |url=https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/documents/assets/pdf/combating-hate/Sovereign-Citizen-Documentary-Identifiers.pdf |publisher=Anti-Defamation League |access-date=February 7, 2022}} One purported "redemption" method for appropriating the money from the alleged secret account is to file a UCC-1 financing statement against one's strawman after having taken the steps to "separate" from it.

One Canadian freeman on the land "guru" known under the pseudonym "John Spirit" developed a more sophisticated version of the strawman theory, based on misinterpretations of various international treaties and of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.{{Cite news|url=https://albertalawreview.com/index.php/ALR/article/download/2593/2553/2807A|title=Enjoy the Silence: Pseudolaw at the Supreme Court of Canada|last1=Netolitzky|first1=Donald J.|last2=Warman|first2=Richard|date=2020|access-date=November 25, 2022|publisher=Alberta Law Review|archive-date=November 25, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221125114500/https://albertalawreview.com/index.php/ALR/article/download/2593/2553/2807A|url-status=dead}}{{Citation|title=Freemen Arrive at the Ontario Court of Appeal |date=May 12, 2019|url= http://www.slaw.ca/2019/05/12/freemen-arrive-at-the-ontario-court-of-appeal/ |last=Ha-Redeye|first=Omar|publisher=Slaw.ca|access-date=November 27, 2022}} His arguments were rejected by Canadian provincial and Federal courts.

In accepted legal theory there is a difference between what is known as a natural person and that of a corporate person. A corporate personhood applies to business, charities, governments and other recognized organisations. Courts recognize human beings as 'persons', not as a legal fiction joined to a flesh and blood human being but as one and the same.{{cite court |litigants=Meads v. Meads |vol= |reporter= |opinion= |pinpoint= |court=ABQB 571 (CanLII) |date=18 September 2012 |url=https://www.canlii.org/en/ab/abqb/doc/2012/2012abqb571/2012abqb571.html |access-date=15 June 2018 |quote=A strange but common OPCA concept is that an individual can somehow exist in two separate but related states. This confusing concept is expressed in many different ways. The ‘physical person’ is one aspect of the duality, the other is a non-corporeal aspect that has many names, such as a “strawman”...}} They have never recognized a right to distance oneself from one's person, or the ability to opt out of personhood.

{{cite web |last1=Lovejoy |first1=Hans |title=Taking on the law as a 'strawman' |url=https://www.echo.net.au/2015/07/taking-on-the-law-as-a-strawman/ |website=echo.net |date=7 July 2015 |access-date=15 June 2018}}

In 2010, Canadian tax protester and vexatious litigant David Kevin Lindsay appealed his 2008 conviction and sentencing on five counts of failing to file income tax returns, on the ground that he was not a "person" as defined by the Income Tax Act. Lindsay's argument was that he had opted out of "personhood" in 1996, which made him "a full liability free will flesh and blood living man". The Supreme Court of British Columbia rejected his claims, commenting that "The ordinary sense of the word 'person' in the (Income Tax Act) is without ambiguity. It is clear that Parliament intended the word in its broadest sense."{{Cite web |title= A person is a 'person', B.C. judge rules |publisher= CTV news|date= June 18, 2010 |url=https://bc.ctvnews.ca/a-person-is-a-person-b-c-judge-rules-1.524099|access-date= January 25, 2022}}

In 2012, Associate Justice John D. Rooke of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta addressed the strawman theory in detail in his Meads v. Meads decision, concluding: {{blockquote|'Double/split person' schemes have no legal effect. These schemes have no basis in law. There is only one legal identity that attaches to a person. If a person wishes to add a legal 'layer' to themselves, then a corporation is the proper approach. }}

Judge Norman K. Moon found such tactics an unconvincing argument in 2013 when an individual named Brandon Gravatt tried to overturn a drug conviction and get out of prison. The case was summarily dismissed by the court.{{cite court |litigants=United States v. Brandon Gravatt |vol= |reporter= |opinion= |pinpoint= |court=Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit |date=26 June 2013 |url=https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/933610/united-states-v-brandon-gravatt/ |access-date=15 June 2018 |quote=Brandon Shane Gravatt appeals the district court's order denying his 18 U.S.C.§3582(c)(2)(2006) motion for sentence reduction. We have reviewed the record and find no reversible error. Accordingly, we affirm the district court's order. United States v. Gravatt, No. 5:01-cr-00736-CMC-1 (D.S.C. March 27, 2013). We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid in the decisional process.}}

In 2016, a billboard campaign promoted the "legal name fraud" theory in the United Kingdom. Lawyer David Allen Green commented that the theory was "complete tosh" and potentially harmful to litigants who would use it in court: "If people try to use such things to avoid their legal obligations they can end up with county court judgments or even criminal convictions. You may as well walk into court with a t-shirt saying 'I am an idiot'."{{Cite news |url= https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36499750 |title=The mystery of the 'legal name fraud' billboards |last=Kelly |first=Jon |date=11 June 2016 |access-date=2 September 2019 |work=BBC News}}

In 2021, the District Court of Queensland dismissed an application that relied on the strawman theory, commenting that this argument "may properly be described as nonsense or gobbledygook".{{Citation|title='Nonsense, gobbledygook': Judge criticises man's bizarre argument to throw out drug charges|date= September 16, 2021 |url=https://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/news/nonsense-gobbledygook-judge-criticises-mans-bizarre-argument-to-throw-out-drug-charges/news-story/671c05955a5a67e3b089c14f009249e8 |publisher=news.com.au |access-date=November 9, 2022}} The court also pointed out that the strawman scheme, if it had any legal validity, would have adverse consequences for those affected:

{{blockquote|An adult human being with full capacity can sue and be sued. They are subject to the criminal laws of this state. These fundamental propositions cannot be doubted. It is true that a natural person can create a legal entity that has a distinct legal personality – such entities are commonly called companies – but this is an adjunct to, rather than a replacement for, the legal personality of the human being. One way of illustrating why this must be so is to consider the consequences of the ability to 'renounce' legal personhood. The law has at times recognised categories of person who did not possess a legal personality. These categories included, before 1833, slaves, who were regarded as chattel property, could be bought and sold, and who had no rights under the law. At times women and children were thought not to possess a legal personality. (...) The fates of people who were in these categories were rarely pleasant. If the applicant were somehow able to renounce his legal personality, he would become a human being without rights. He would be mere property. Such an outcome would be antithetical to our society and system of laws.{{citation|last= |first= |title=R v Sweet[2021] QDC 216 |date= September 6, 2021|url= https://www.queenslandjudgments.com.au/caselaw/qdc/2021/216 |work=queenslandjudgments.com.au|access-date=2021-12-27}} }}

Likewise, Donald J. Netolitzky has stressed that : {{blockquote|In modern law, any human being is also innately a legal person, so the historical duality that might serve as a theoretical foundation for "Strawman" Theory is now irrevocably and innately melded together into a single unit. Any human being is a legal person.}}

It is impossible to dodge the law by insisting that an individual is different from his or her person. If a court can establish a person's identity, regardless of consent or cooperation, the court will engage in proceedings and sanctions against the individual. This is due to the legal principle known as Idem sonans (Latin for "sounding the same") which states that similar sounding names are just as valid in referring to a person.{{rp|p813}} The earliest legal precedent is R v Davis in the United Kingdom in 1851.{{cite book|author1=John Frederick Archbold |title=Archbold's Pleading and Evidence in Criminal Cases ... The twelfth edition, including the practice in criminal proceedings generally|author2= W. N. Welsby|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UBRXAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA190|year=1867|page=190|publisher=Henry Sweet}}

{{cquote|If two names spelt differently necessarily sound alike, the court may, as matter of law, pronounce them to be idem sonantia; but if they do not necessarily sound alike, the question whether they are idem sonantia is a question of fact for the jury.}}

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