[guadalcanal1]

As long as no one is witness, you can do anything.

No... you can't do a lot of illegal stuff when no one is watching.

I can....

[cerevox]

No, you can't do that for a couple of reasons. What fritter said s mostly right, but it can be built on a bit.

First, you own certain rights to use the land in accordance with any mineral and property laws that apply in your state, since most land ownership is regulated by the state, not the federal government. The right to secede with your bit of land from the USA is not granted by any federal law and states do not have the right to grant the right to secede(see the civil war for proof of that), which means that you, as a property owner, do not have the right to remove your bit of land from the USA.

Second, if for some bizarre, absurd, reason, the government decided to take you seriously, then it would not be a case of you seceding with your land. It would be a case of you annexing the land. If the government continued to take this seriously, then they would send troops to slaughter you, seeing as you have declared yourself to be an independent state that is stealing land from the USA.

All the little micro nations like that are ridiculous. The only reason they have not been smashed down by the nearest government is that the government would spend more in bullets killing the squatters than they would make by taking the land. No government in the world would let you just up and walk off with a chunk of their land either, no matter what silly legal justification anyone comes up with so honestly, the whole thing is just a fantasy of isolationists whose brain's are not quite working as well as they should be.

[MrOrwin]

The only thing I can think of in this sort of manner, are Native American Reservations.
Some native american owns his own land in the USA that is not taxed and has separate laws as long as they are deemed "lawful" by the Western States.

Native Americans can arrest someone who does not belong to their reservation for any reason that they seem necessary. I was arrested for simply driving through with my music too loud because according to their laws no noise above a certain decibel was allowed within city limits.

The only restriction that reservations have is size-limit, they expand their land because of what has previously been said, "stealing land from US".

[CirJohn]

As long as you pay the property taxes, the government will consider you a harmless crazy person.

If you stop paying property taxes you become dangerous and/or a subversive element. If you persist in deliquency of payment of taxes, the local goverment will confiscate the land. If you forcefully resist....well the police, FBI and national gaurd have all dealt with these kinds of crazies before.

Also...unless you are already a recognized political state, purchasing land only grants you usageage rights. The land still belongs to the goverment you've "purchased" it from. If you are a political state it is refered to as "annexing" or "establishing an embassy" - both require you to go through the State Department instead of the local or regional government.

And yes, foreigners can buy US land. It's likely more difficult if you don't have a nationality, but it's just a matter of cutting the red tape.

Your best chance at establishing a micronation at this point is doing what Sealand did. Find a sandbar in the middle of nowhere, and beach or sink a permanent vessel on it.

Hehe. There was a rich guy tha built his own carribean island last year. When it was finished, he renounced his citizenship and declared the island a sovereign nation. Five days later the island was taken by pirates, the rich guy and his family/servants were murdered, and life went on for everybody else.

I'll keep my US citizenship. They'll defend my private islands with an army, a navy, the air force, some marines, and a crackerjack team of seals.

[Prodigy9]

I'll keep my US citizenship. They'll defend my private islands with an army, a navy, the air force, some marines, and a crackerjack team of seals.

Excellent point. There are many reasons that it might seem nice to be your own independent nation (lack of taxes not least among them), but ultimately that's just a pipe dream; aside from the security issues, life in this day and age is complicated enough that it's hard to imagine having a good quality of life while being completely self-sufficient (i.e. not obtaining goods and services from other people).

This makes me wonder, though:

Also...unless you are already a recognized political state, purchasing land only grants you usageage rights. The land still belongs to the goverment you've "purchased" it from. If you are a political state it is refered to as "annexing" or "establishing an embassy" - both require you to go through the State Department instead of the local or regional government.

If someone did decide they'd like to go through with making their own "micronation," they might be able to get away with it through the embassy route. Whether by trickery, bribery, or some other disreputable methods, wouldn't it be possible to get your little patch of land recognized as an embassy of your just-declared country?



Edit:
Completely unrelated, but does this remind anyone of DRM? "You can buy this {land/software} from us, and you're allowed to use it, but you don't actually own it, so we retain complete control over the {land/software} that you just paid us for."

[TechnoProdigy]

All of the land in the United States is owned by the government. An example of this would be that if they wanted to build infrastructure somewhere, and your house is in the way, then they are allowed to tear it down after giving ample warning and fair compensation.

[Prodigy9]

All of the land in the United States is owned by the government. An example of this would be that if they wanted to build infrastructure somewhere, and your house is in the way, then they are allowed to tear it down after giving ample warning and fair compensation.

Or if they want to build a mall. Ask Donald Trump about that.

[TechnoProdigy]

All of the land in the United States is owned by the government. An example of this would be that if they wanted to build infrastructure somewhere, and your house is in the way, then they are allowed to tear it down after giving ample warning and fair compensation.

Or if they want to build a mall. Ask Donald Trump about that.

He had to build around that elderly woman's house, he did not build through it as that would be illegal.

[fritterdonut]

It is much easier to create an isolated or hidden community than a declared "nation".

There is plenty of unbought land in the middle of nowhere, like Arizona or Colorado. Think of Galt's Gulch.

Also, Cerevox, some island micronations (such as Sealand) are protected under international laws, as they are in international waters and not attached to any country. ( a judge actually ruled that Britain has no law jurisdiction over Sealand).

[nkirby3385]

The only state that retains rights, to this day, to secede from the US without consequence is the great state of Texas. That being said, if Texas did secede from the union it would be one of the richest nations per capita in the world. It has oil, natural gas, various other minerals, an extensive agricultural element, as well as a rather large number of citizens that would quickly put their massive gun collections towards forming a militia that would likely make quite a few armies of the world wet themselves. Is it gonna happen? Not likely. If it did, I guarantee that infamous "wall" that people always talk about building across the Mexican border would be up nearly over night. Think....Raccoon City in the second resident evil movie.....except that massively patrolled and gunned wall would stretch the entire Mexican-Texas border.

On the outs, I would like to think that Family Guy put a relatively realistic spin on this concept. If you had the "rights" to secede with your little plot of land, your border would be surrounded by chain link fence and razor wire and you would have a fair few guns pointed at your rather small border to keep you in and the rest of America out