Republican backtracks after promoting sovereign citizen theories

A Colorado Republican state legislator is walking back his support for theories promoted by the sovereign citizen movement, according to a report.

State Rep. Ken DeGraaf described for a conservative podcast his view of a government structured around the rights of individuals, whom he described as "sovereign citizens." He agreed with the host's assertion that the state's Democratic majority was engaged in an "egregious subversion of democracy," reported the Colorado Times Recorder.

“They took an oath to it and we remind them that they pledge allegiance to it every day and that’s to the idea that the individual is Sovereign over the state, and everything they promote is making the state sovereign over the individual," DeGraaf said.

Neither the Pledge of Allegiance nor the oath elected officials take make any reference to individuals being sovereign over the state, but he repeatedly returned to the concept during the podcast interview.

“The entire idea of our republic where the individual is sovereign and that the layers of government support and secure that sovereignty all the way down,” DeGraaf said. “The governor should be supporting the State Assembly and the State Assembly should be supporting local government and local governments should be supporting, so those are all underneath, but instead what we have is a governor who’s making himself a dictator.”

DeGraaf called the newspaper after it published a report on his remarks and insisted that his views differed from the commonly understood concept of a sovereign citizen who rejects government authority.

“As far as the people who [during a traffic stop] stick their driver’s license out the window and say they don’t have to talk to anybody, or say they don’t have to pay taxes, well that’s going to land you in jail," DeGraaf said in the follow-up interview.

"I know what movement you’re talking about, but other than that, I don’t have any involvement with any such group. As far as the supremacy movement or the extremist thing, no, what I’m talking about is the Declaration of Independence is very clear -- the just powers of government are to secure these rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That’s what government is supposed to do.”

However, he believed the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause, which gives federal law priority over contradicting state laws, rested on "shaky ground" and expressed support for jury nullification, another theory popular in the sovereign citizen movement.

“You take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, you’re not taking an oath to support and defend the Pentagon," DeGraaf said. "That same scenario could potentially occur with civilians, who might then also face consequences, such as arrest and trial, though he also mentioned a potential solution for someone who is “hauled into court. A jury has the right to throw out a law.”