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CAQ: Common Law Courts

 From: Bob Witanek <bwitanek@igc.apc.org>
 Posted dadoner@chesco.com  Thu Jun 20 23:46:56 1996
 From: Ronnie Dadone <dadoner@chesco.com>
 http://www.worldmedia.com/caq/articles/common_law.html
 >                 VIGILANTE JUSTICE: COMMON LAW COURTS
 > 
 >                by Devin Burghart and Robert Crawford
 > 
 >      ACROSS THE COUNTRY, FAR-RIGHT ACTIVISTS ARE BUILDING AN
 >      ALTERNATIVE JUDICIAL SYSTEM. WITH MILITIAS AS THEIR
 >      ENFORCEMENT ARM, THESE COMMON LAW COURTS ARE A INCUBATOR
 >      FOR TROUBLE.
   With the stand-off between law enforcement officials and
   self-proclaimed Freemen near Jordan, Montana, the volatile white
   supremacist movement once again has captured the media spotlight.
   After the March 25 arrest of Freemen leaders LeRoy Schweitzer and
   Daniel Petersen on fraud and conspiracy charges, some 20 followers
   dug in for a siege at the ranch they renamed Justus Township. Armed
   for combat with a stockpile of weapons and equipped with a fanatic
   commitment to battling federal and state jurisdiction, the group
   holed-up near the small Montana town.
   
   While the media provided breathless blow-by-blow coverage of the
   stand-off, it largely has omitted any serious analysis of the social
   movement to which the Freemen belong. The Freemen's leadership role
   in applying one of the movement's recent tools for struggle the
   so-called common law court remains similarly unscrutinized.
   
   Also known as citizen grand juries, common law courts are
   self-elected vigilante organizations that claim for themselves the
   authority of law. The Freemen, along with their fellow travelers in
   the Christian Patriot movement (see p. 29), use these courts to
   declare themselves outside the jurisdiction of federal and state
   laws, issue harassing liens against the property of political
   opponents, and proclaim their right to arrest, judge, and even kill
   their opponents.
   
   Court activists patch the courts together from models provided by
   experts and by improvising. The United Sovereigns of America, a
   leading national advocate of such courts with links to efforts in at
   least 13 states, provides one model. *1 In it, a committee formed at
   a court training session votes to establish Our One Supreme Court of
   Common Law and selects officers, typically court clerks, court
   justices (jurors), and a jury foreman.
   
   Once impaneled, the court begins to hear cases. Because it is often
   a prerequisite for standing before the court, the most frequent
   early action is the quiet title a declaration of independence from
   federal government jurisdiction. Once petitioners have become
   sovereign, they may then use the court as a vehicle to launch paper
   attacks on private citizens and public officials. When these
   sovereign citizens bring a charge, the court claims power of
   investigation and calls accused parties to appear. If they refuse,
   the court generally finds them guilty in absentia and issues
   punishment liens and threats of arrest, jailing, or death to be
   enforced by the militia or constable.
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   COURTS, PATRIOTS, AND MILITIAS