Bruce Ray Riggs, an independent running for U.S. Congress in Florida's 5th District, has a message and his message has attracted a small yet fervent following. Riggs, part of a recent surge of independents seeking statewide office, is one of 27 candidates not declaring a party affiliation for the sunshine state's August primary.

Riggs is actually so far from being a partisan that he believes most federal laws passed with the help of either party over the past 150 years have been unconstitutional. As an issues-candidate, his issue seems to cut to the heart of all political issues, at least the ones that touch on the 14th Amendment (and that's a lot).

“This is a common issue, no matter what race or religion anyone is. We're all in the same boat and its sinking and this is something we should all take interest in. If nothing else, this is the one thing we should have unity on. This is our future and our children's future at stake,” says Riggs.

In short, Riggs asserts that the original Constitution penned by the Founders never survived the Civil War era. He calls that event the “transition period” of 1861-1871 when citizens of each state were transferred from a “constitutional” to a “commercial” standing in law by way of the 14^th Amendment.

Riggs says that civil rights groups who focus their defense on certain aspects of the Bill of Rights are missing the bigger picture. What Tea Party and liberty groups need to understand is that the 14^th Amendment created a different jurisdiction, he says.

“It created a different 'citizenship' and that's where the constitutional violations are coming from. You are not under the constitutional citizenship or under that jurisdiction, you are under a different, newly created, corporate one. That's why they can't fix this problem. They're aware of it, that everything operates under commercial law...and commercial law is good, but we are not supposed to be under that point in standing in law, we're supposed to be under a constitutional standing in law.”

The “post-constructional” jurisdiction that resulted from the Civil War led the Federal government to assume powers under the 14^th Amendment that were never lawfully granted by the Constitution, says Riggs. It would follow that many laws, taxes, restrictions and government powers are null and void, including all Supreme Court rulings decided using Incorporation Doctrine. That's just about every landmark decision of the 20^th Century, effecting such things as abortion, prayer in schools, gun control, Imminent Domain and the display of the Ten Commandments in public places.

Even the national debt is strictly a 14^th Amendment issue, says Riggs. Just examine section 4 of the law.

A statement on his official campaign website, dirtyunclesam.com reads in part, “I will demonstrate, with facts and freely available documents, how this unconstitutional jurisdiction came to be and how to fix it.”

In a 43 minute campaign video, which has so far scored over 3,100 Facebook likes, Riggs does just that – documents his case with a dizzying number of citations from state and federal congressional journals, state and U.S. Supreme Court decisions as well as executive orders, among other references. Riggs also refers to an Examiner article titled, “US Economic History that Ron Paul Wants Every American to Know: part II” to help fill out his--shall we say-- revisionist history lesson.

In the aforementioned series of articles, author Geoff Linsley writes that in 1871 England incorporated a ten square-mile District of Columbia under international law and with the help of the dubiously ratified 14^th Amendment. Why? Apparently the federal government declared bankruptcy, having defaulted on its war debts. But the Motherland didn't stop their commercial takeover with DC; they also incorporated the government, its “organic” Constitution and its people. According to Riggs and the anti-14^th Amendment group Republic for the United States, thus was formed the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (a corporation, not to be confused with the previously constituted United States for America). Riggs himself is published on the matter.

Its all very intriguing stuff, but lost in all this research is one glaring omission: what is Mr. Riggs' platform? The congressional candidate does have something of a road map for instituting his policy of...de-legitimizing his own office. The congressman-hopeful wants to “finish the rest of the good works of the 13^th amendment” by making all forms of slavery unconstitutional. And yes, there are multiple forms of slavery, according to Riggs. He says that the 13^th amendment limits its emancipatory effect to “involuntary servitude,” implying that international financiers contract with corporate individuals for purposes of “voluntary servitude.”

Riggs also wants to use his power in office to start a movement that would reverse many of the ubiquitous ramifications the 14^th amendment has had on statutory law. “Use the Supremacy Clause, strike it with null; redefine the meaning of the word 'person' to not mean a corporation as far as human beings are concerned. There are many ways to cut these jurisdictional strings,” Riggs says.

Another immediate goal of Mr. Riggs is to start a House investigation into the decline of the middle class. He insinuated that there has been a concerted effort by taxing authorities to outsource American manufacturing jobs over the past two decades.

It seems that Ron Paul has more than just roused a small army of “liberty-minded” candidates to run for public office and lead a movement that is remaking the Republican Party establishment into his own strict-constructionist image, Paul's candidacy has provided a new model for electioneering. It is one based first and foremost on a battle of ideas. We are now seeing office seekers unabashedly use their candidacy as an educational program.

Riggs isn't shy about his professorial aims.

“I'm running for office to wake folks up. If they don't vote for me, that's fine. Just wake the folks up. This is a Paul Revere mission, that's what my candidacy is,” Riggs says.

Riggs is so confident in his position that he has offered a blanket challenge: if anyone can prove that the 14^th Amendment was ratified “pursuant to the Constitution,” he will drop out of the race.