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82 A.B.A. J. 112 (1996)
The Law according to Barefoot Bob

handle is hein.journals/abaj82 and id is 1280 raw text is: The Law According to Barefoot Bob Cyberpatriots have their own 'vision' of the Constitution on the Internet Like a lot of lawyers, I once laughed at the militia movement. There's nothing in the Constitution giving these yahoos the right to stockpile automatic weapons, threaten government officials, and ig- nore court orders and tax bills. Then I cruised their Internet sites and discovered it's not so funny. The pa- triots of 1996 use the information super- highway for the same reason the patriots of 1776 published broadside pamphlets- to bypass the establishment media and get their revolutionary ideas directly to the people. From the militia movement's elec- tronic broadsides, I learned that as a law- yer I am living a lie. Nothing about the Constitution is as I understand it. For a short course in constitutional law accord- ing to the militia you should know: Lesson 1: American citizenship -take it or leave it. You probably think that all Ameri- cans share the rights and duties of na- tional citizenship. If so, check out the Citizens Forum Web site, where you will learn that the Framers did not recognize U.S. citizenship. Under the original Con- stitution, Americans had primary alle- giance to one of the several states. By renouncing U.S. citizenship, the Sovereign Citizen Research Council ex- plains, you become a sovereign state citi- zen beyond the reach of the federal gov- ernment. Lesson 2: The Second Amend- ment-a guarantee of guns galore. This is the Holy Grail of the move- ment and its gun-toting legal scholars. The Militia of Montana home page as- serts that the Founders intended the pro- vision to thwart the tyranny and treason of a run-away governmental bureaucracy. In yet another attempt to confuse and trick us, federal, state and local laws have been written regulating the use of 'firearms,' warns the citizen coun- cil. Never admit to owning 'firearms,' [which are] legally defined and regulat- able by the government. The only thing free men and free women should ever admit to owning are 'arms,' as mentioned in the [Second Amendment]. Lesson 3: If the feds come to take you away, you can take them out. The right to keep and bear arms William C. Smith is a lawyer in Philadelphia. Opinions expressed in Per- spective are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect ABA policy. might come in handy if you disagree with an FBI agent on the proper scope of the Fourth Amendment. Patriots have ready response to unreasonable searches and seizures-lock and load. Citizens may resist unlawful arrest to the point of tak- ing an arresting officer's life if neces- sary, counsels the Constitution Society. Lesson 4: Juries don't have to obey the law. The judge explains the law, and the jury applies the law to the facts. That is, unless they decide they don't like the law. Then they can ignore their oath as jurors and do what they please. Saying that there is something holy about such an oath is simply stupid because the oath was written by the wolves as a means to control the sheep, explains a posting on misc. activism.militia. Lesson 5: Lawyers can't make laws. Most lawyers mistakenly believe that the 13th Amendment banned slav- ery and involuntary servitude. The Bare- foot Bob Freedom and Survival Web site corrects this thinking with an explana- tion of the missing 13th Amendment. This phantom provision, supposedly rati- fied in 1819, states that Americans who accept, claim, receive, or retain any title of nobility or honour are stripped of citi- zenship and barred from public office. Although courts have never found, much less interpreted, the missing amendment, Barefoot Bob has figured out that its language and historical con- text show that its principle intent .. was to prohibit lawyers from serving in government. 'Esquire' was the principle title of nobility which the 13th Amendment sought to prohibit. ... Why? Because the loyalty of 'Esquire' lawyers was suspect. This missing amendment might provide a legal basis to challenge many existing laws and court decisions previ- ously made by lawyers who were uncon- stitutionally elected or appointed to their positions of power; it might even mean the removal of lawyers from our current government system. Someday, the constitutional vision of the cyberpatriots may be the law of the land. If it is, it will be both bad news and good news for lawyers. The bad news is that we will all be destitute, disgraced and despised. The good news is that it will be a lot easier to buy the weapons needed to protect our- selves from our new leaders. U 112 ABA JOURNAL / NOVEMBER 1996 BY WILLIAM C. SMITH The militia movement wants to stop the 'tyranny and treason of a run-away governmental bureaucracy' any way it can.

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