As a Notary Public, you will always come across some unusual requests from clients. Notaries should be careful if asked to notarize a document related to the “sovereign citizen” movement.
Members of the sovereign citizen movement believe that the U.S. government is illegitimate and sometimes misuse legal documents to retaliate against various individuals, including private citizens and government officials. Their activities include filing bogus liens against government officials, fraudulent federal and state tax documents, fraudulent deeds, and other false real estate filings.
Members of this movement sometimes ask Notaries to sign and stamp these documents to give them the appearance of legal authority. While notarization does confirm the identity of the signers and their willingness to sign the documents, it does not validate the legality or enforceability of a document.
Ultimately, Notaries should not refuse a notarization request because of a signer’s political position, but you should not perform a notarization if you have reason to believe the transaction is illegal or if the signer cannot provide satisfactory proof of identity.
Warning Signs
If you are asked to notarize a document related to the sovereign citizen movement, be alert for these warning signs that the document may be used for illegal purposes:
- Documents featuring red thumbprints or signatures in red ink.
- Zip codes enclosed in brackets (e.g., [91344]).
- Signature lines including phrases like “all rights reserved” or “not a citizen of the United States.”
- Statements indicating the signer is exempt from government laws, regulations, and taxes.
- Requests for you to certify facts in the document. Notaries do not verify any information listed in any document.
- Documents that indicate the government owes an extremely high dollar amount (for example, in the millions or billions) to the signer or signer’s family.
Also, some identification documents presented to Notaries by sovereign citizen signers may have official-sounding titles but are not actually issued by a government agency. Examples include identification cards labeled “Global Citizen,” “Free State Republic,” “World Passport,” or “American National.” These IDs are not government-issued and should not be accepted to identify a signer.
State Guidelines
State guidelines for refusing a notarization request can vary:
Arkansas allows Notaries to refuse a request for any reason.
Several states, such as Pennsylvania, also permit Notaries to refuse a request unless the refusal is prohibited by any other law.
A Mississippi administrative rule requires Notaries to refuse a requested notarization if they have good reason to believe it is for an unlawful or improper purpose.
If you have questions about your state's rules for refusing suspicious notarization requests or unfamiliar signer ID, or you are asked to perform a notarization you think may be illegal, you can call the NNA Notary Hotline or your state Notary regulating agency for help.
John Jacobson is a member of the Information Services team at the National Notary Association and regularly answers questions from Notaries on the NNA Notary Hotline.