Leaked report.

• Author: Walker, Jesse
• Position: DHS and sovereign citizens - Report on the sovereign citizens movement - Brief article

In February, the Department of Homeland Security circulated a report on the sovereign citizens movement, known for filing nuisance lawsuits, making their own license plates and identification papers, and sometimes attempting to form parallel institutions of government. The intelligence assessment was not released to the general public, though some media outlets did get wind of it and discussed it in sensationalized terms.

reason acquired a copy of the report, which can be viewed in its entirety at reason.com. It turns out to be much more measured than the coverage it inspired.

The document declares on its first page that most sovereign citizens are nonviolent, and it says it will focus only on the violent fringe within a fringe. It describes their violence as "sporadic" and does not expect its rate to rise in 2015.

The report adds that most sovereign-citizen violence consists of "unplanned, reactive" clashes with police officers, not preplanned attacks. When sovereigns do plan an...