Paul J. Hansen is a flamboyantly lunatic sovereign citizen (self-proclaimed) who has made a bit of a career offering legal advice and selling legal “kits” to other sovereign citizen types and people in trouble with the law. Despite admitting to being a “native-born of the Land of Nebraska” and living in Omaha, Hansen “believes that neither the city nor Douglas County holds sway over him” and “does not believe the laws of the United States of America apply to him”; he does, accordingly, for instance refuse to pay taxes. On the other hand, he does sell “briefs” on his website to people who don’t want to get a driver’s license or license plate, or who do not want to observe public health codes or pay taxes. His followers tend to claim that his legal reasoning is sound because they have no training in or idea about how the law works, and preditably tend to neglect the probably rather more pressing question “will it fly?” And to answer the latter, it is worth noting that Hansen has outstanding warrants for his arrest for failing to appear in court, tax liens for tens of thousands of dollars, and been arrested a two-digit number of times. Over the course of his career, Hansen has made news for instance for taking money from a disabled person and for being sentenced to jail for refusing to address 14 housing code violations as well as “one count of giving false information, one count of resisting arrest and two counts of obstructing the administration of the law.”
Hansen is, however, most famous for his work on behalf of legendary loon Kent Hovind. After having landed himself in jail for tax fraud, Hovind – who had long promoted sovereign citizen theories himself – sought the legal counsel of Hansen. The WND described Hansen as “an attorney advising Hovind”; Hansen, however, is not a lawyer but, according to himself, a “law-educated layman”; indeed, the courts issued an injunction in 2013 preventing Hansen from “engaging in the unauthorized practice of law in any manner, including but not limited to holding himself out to another as being entitled to practice law as defined by § 3-1001” after an investigation of Hansen's blogs and legal “kits”. A fairly representative example of Hansen’s work on Hovind’s behalf is his 2011 letter to the Florida Attorney General informing the government that Hovind is a “free inhabitant” per the Articles of Confederation and the government “must accept the Articles of Confederation” – i.e., Hansen based his argument on a system of governance that dissolved itself in 1789. That Hovind would buy such bullshit is hardly surprising. The courts emphatically didn’t.
Apparently, Hovind’s and Hansen’s partnership has continued also after Hovind finally got out of jail, and they have gone on to file frivolous lawsuits to be dismissed with prejudice based on hysterically insane pseudolaw.
Note that there is also a Paul Hansen who has published work with Answers in Genesis. We have no idea whether that is the same guy or not.
Diagnosis: Kent Hovind found his reasoning compelling enough to partner up with him, and that tells you all you need to know. And Paul Hansen is primarily a danger to himself and those who associate with him. That said, there is a scary amount of these dingbats to go around.
Hat-tip: Rationalwiki
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