Abstract

The United States of America celebrates 250 years of independence on 4 July 2026. While the U.S. Declaration of Independence established U.S. political separation from Great Britain, the U.S. Constitution was not ratified until 1788, after a failed first attempt with the Articles of Confederation. Over the centuries, individuals have written the U.S. Code and U.S. case law using terminology from Latin, Old English (Anglo-Saxon), French (Anglo-Norman), and Middle English. Compounding this linguistic labyrinth, the legal system had no uniform system for distributing justice, relying on each state to administer procedures according to its own interests. It was not until 1934 that the Rules Enabling Act was created, not until 1938 that the Federal Rules for Civil Procedure were created, and not until 1946 that the Federal Rules for Criminal Procedure were created. This study presents the pragmatic failure incurred by sovereign citizen actors when their speech acts are introduced to U.S. criminal courts and the subsequent clash of ideologies.