Jared Fogle's Sovereign Citizen Appeal Rejected
Remember Jared? He was just that everyday overweight American who lost more than half his body weight by eating a submarine sandwich every day. How could you forget someone that epitomized the American dream so well?
He was one of the spokesmen that people were actually inspired by. Which was what made his recent conviction for child pornography all the more shocking. Many people pictured him as a wholesome individual, who, with hard work and eating a submarine sandwich a day, got skinny, then became famous.
Unfortunately for some people that bought into the shtick, they got neither. And the Seventh Circuit, having already rejected Fogle, was likely not pleased when another motion landed on their bench, and were probably saddened that Judge Posner was no longer on the bench as a benchslapping may have been in order for the sandwich king of cellblock 2, now a pro se litigant presenting a sovereign citizen defense.
The Sovereign Citizen Defense
It's been said over and over to criminal defendants in the Seventh Circuit, and elsewhere, the sovereign citizen defense doesn't work because it is not real law. Sure there's some stuff out there about it, but as many judges and lawyers have said in the past, it's basically garbage that doesn't apply.
Notably, Fogle filed the motion himself and relied heavily on an amicus brief filed by a fellow inmate. Fogle asserted the sovereign citizen defense and claimed that the federal court did not have jurisdiction over him to prosecute the federal crimes. The appellate court's under-two page dismissal curtly explains that "the Seventh Circuit has instructed that these theories should be rejected summarily, however they are presented."
Somehow, Jared failed to realize that if his attorneys didn't plea the sovereign citizen defense, he probably shouldn't have either. It's not like they failed to pull out all the stops.
Related Resources:
- United States Seventh Circuit Cases (FindLaw's Cases & Codes)
- Retired Judge Posner Benchslapped Back Over BS Benchslap (FindLaw's U.S. Seventh Circuit Blog)
- Posner Faces Scrutiny for Calling BS Legal Theory BS (FindLaw's U.S. Seventh Circuit Blog)