“Increasingly, across the country, sovereign citizens have clashed with authorities, tied up resources and frazzled lives in their insistence that laws such as the requirements to pay taxes, obey speed limits and even obtain, say, a license for a pet dog do not apply to them.” She Bought Her Dream Home. Then a ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Changed the Locks. (The key goal in modern America has become keeping the lunatics from screwing up your life.)