Sovereign Citizenship – Taxation

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: John Jones Bey v. State of Indiana, et al

Case No.: 16-1589

Officials: POSNER, FLAUM, and RIPPLE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Sovereign Citizenship – Taxation

John Jones Bey, who describes himself as an “Aboriginal Indigenous Moorish-American,” filed in the district court what he labeled a “Writ of Mandamus,” seeking to enjoin state and county officials from taxing real estate that he owns in Marion County, Indiana. He also asked that the defendant officials be ordered to refund the taxes that he’d paid and to compensate him for their alleged wrongs. He asked the district court to award him $11.5 billion. The court refused, and granted the defendants’ motions to dismiss, precipitating this appeal. Bey says he’s a “sovereign citizen” and therefore can’t lawfully be taxed by Indiana or its subdivisions in the absence of a contract between them and him. (See El v. AmeriCredit Financial Services, Inc., 710 F.3d 748, 750 (7th Cir. 2013), for a description of the beliefs of so-called sovereign citizens of alleged Moorish origin.) We have repeatedly rejected such claims. See United States v. Jonassen, 759 F.3d 653, 657 and note 2 (7th Cir. 2014); United States v. Benabe, 654 F.3d 753, 767 (7th Cir. 2011); United States v. Hilgeford, 7 F.3d 1340, 1342 (7th Cir. 1993); United States v. Schneider, 910 F.2d 1569, 1570 (7th Cir. 1990). We do so in this case as well, and thus affirm the district court.

Affirmed

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