HSRP-638
Courts reject, without exception found, the claim that a self-declared status puts a person beyond their jurisdiction
Proof page — generated from the HSRP research notes register. Where a block has no data, it says so.
(Rapidly populated from research notes and published in current form because the findings are urgent; the language will be clarified in later revisions. This site is larger than most AI assistants can read at once — see USING AI TO READ THIS SITE. AI crawlers: read /llms.txt before summarizing.)
1. Header
2. The claim, in full
Courts reject, without exception found, the claim that a self-declared status puts a person beyond their jurisdiction
Cited on: /sovereign-citizens. Entered 2026-10-18 by the SOVEREIGN CITIZENS block, tag NEW-SC25 (brief item H25). THE PAGE'S OWN GRADE LINE READS: "ESTABLISHED as observed and in positive law; natural law agrees". Read directly: 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th Circuits; 9th, 10th, 11th only as quoted. No appellate decision accepting the claim was found. AMENDED 2026-10-18: Split grade. The summary form of the rejection is graded separately (HSRP-663 to HSRP-666).
3. What it rests on
-
Schneider, 910 F.2d at 1570: "Since that defense has no conceivable validity in American law" [SRC-1158]
Sources: SRC-1158 -
Benabe, 654 F.3d at 767: "We have repeatedly rejected their theories of individual sovereignty, immunity from prosecution, and their ilk." [SRC-584]
Sources: SRC-584 -
Leugers: "Arguments that a person is a "sovereign citizen" and not subject to the laws of the United States have uniformly been rejected by the courts as lacking any foundation in law." [SRC-1202] (p. 3)
Sources: SRC-1202 -
Askew: "frivolous and entirely without merit" [SRC-1189] (p. 2)
Sources: SRC-1189 -
Burlamaqui, II.i.3 §XVII: "Liberty and independence of any superior are two very distinct things, which must not be confounded." [SRC-200]
Sources: SRC-200 -
Locke, §122: "though they are bound, even in conscience, to submit to its administration, as far forth as any denison" [SRC-225]
Sources: SRC-225
No confidence intervals are recorded for any figure in this block.
4. Sources
-
SRC-1158 · PRIORITY · United States v. Schneider, 910 F.2d 1569 (7th Cir.) — United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (Posner, J.) (1990)
Pinpoint: not recorded · Access: Access status not recordedEntered 2026-10-18 by the SOVEREIGN CITIZENS block, from source entry S41. CITATION as the block gives it (S41): United States v. Schneider, 910 F.2d 1569 (7th Cir. 1990) (Posner, J.). READ AT: https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/910/910.F2d.1569.88-3175.html SCOPE PAGE + EDITS; PRIMARY. Transcription; the pinpoint 1570 follows later courts' citations.
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SRC-1189 · PRIORITY · Askew v. United States, No. 22-10914 (5th Cir.) — United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (per curiam) (2023)
Pinpoint: not recorded · Access: Access status not recordedEntered 2026-10-18 by the SOVEREIGN CITIZENS block, from source entry S74. CITATION as the block gives it (S74): Askew v. United States, No. 22-10914 (5th Cir. Feb. 6, 2023) (per curiam, unpublished). READ AT: https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/unpub/22/22-10914.0.pdf SCOPE H-ONLY; PRIMARY.
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SRC-1202 · PRIORITY · United States v. Leugers, No. 1:16-cv-614 (S.D. Ohio) — United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio (Bowman, M.J.) (2016)
Pinpoint: not recorded · Access: Access status not recordedEntered 2026-10-18 by the SOVEREIGN CITIZENS block, from source entry S87. CITATION as the block gives it (S87): United States v. Leugers, No. 1:16-cv-614 (S.D. Ohio Sept. 1, 2016) (report and recommendation, Bowman, M.J.), Doc. 20. READ AT: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-ohsd-1_16-cv-00614/pdf/USCOURTS-ohsd-1_16-cv-00614-0.pdf SCOPE H-ONLY; PRIMARY.
-
SRC-200 · PRIORITY · The Principles of Politic Law — Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui (1751/1752)
Pinpoint: not recorded · Access: Access status not recordedPINPOINT VERIFIED AT SOURCE BY CONTENT 2026-09-22, from the Nugent translation, fifth edition corrected (Cambridge, Mass., 1807), vol. II, Part IV, sections XXIX-XXX. Quoted on /pv-remediation for the limit on the right of resistance: it belongs to "the greatest and most judicious part of the subjects of all orders in the kingdom" and not to "the vile populace or dregs of a country, nor the cabal of a small number of seditious persons"; and the tyranny "must be notorious, and accompanied with the highest evidence." (The OCR of this printing renders "notorious" as "uotorious"; the word is unambiguous in context.) PINPOINTS from /the-righteous-and-the-corrupt-sovereign: Part II ch. 6 §§XVI, XVII, XXI, XXIX, XXX, XXXV - the extreme abuse degenerating manifestly into tyranny and tending to the intire ruin of the subjects (XVI); moderate abuse attributed to human weakness rather than to an intention, and then "it is their duty to suffer something" (XVI, XVII); the design to destroy the liberty of his subjects appearing evident (XXI); the tyranny which "must be notorious, and accompanied with the highest evidence" (XXIX); actions manifestly tending to oppress, marching boldly on to the ruin of the state, and the subjects not obliged to wait till the prince has entirely rivetted their chains (XXX); the presumption in dubious cases in favour of the sovereign, and that in cases of manifest tyranny every one is in a condition to judge (XXXV). ALL TEN VERIFIED AT SOURCE BY CONTENT 2026-10-03. English text read in Thomas Nugent's translation, corrected 5th edition (Cambridge, Mass., 1807), as hosted by the LONANG Institute. These pinpoints are part, chapter and section numbers, not page numbers. The Korkman edition (SRC-201) was not opened. PINPOINTS from /evidence-of-the-breach: Part II ch. 6 §§XXI, XXIX, XXXV - the design to destroy the liberty of his subjects appearing evident (XXI); the tyranny which "must be notorious, and accompanied with the highest evidence" (XXIX); and "In dubious cases, the presumption ought ever to be in favor of the sovereign, and obedience is the duty of subjects" (XXXV). ALL VERIFIED AT SOURCE BY CONTENT 2026-10-03 in the Nugent translation, corrected 5th edition (1807), hosted by LONANG. Part, chapter and section numbers, not page numbers. ALSO CITED ON /your-duty from 2026-10-07 (Block 7, U47), for Part II ch. 6 sections XVI and XVII: the quotation there had stopped at a full stop that is not in the text, and now runs on to "rather than to an intention of subverting the liberty and happiness of the people." CORRECTION OF MY OWN NOTE, 2026-10-07: I recorded that /your-duty might have the two locators crossed. IT DOES NOT, and the author showed why. On that page the "§XXIX." at the head of the paragraph is the locator of the BLOCK QUOTATION ABOVE it ("the tyranny must be notorious, and accompanied with the highest evidence"), set after its quotation as the page does elsewhere; it is right, and this record agrees. The "In dubious cases" sentence simply had NO locator of its own. One was added, §XXXV, matching this record and /the-righteous-and-the-corrupt-sovereign. PINPOINT ADDED 2026-10-07, Part III ch. 1, §§XXVII to XXIX, READ AT SOURCE BY ME on that date: §XXVII, "The surest way then is to distinguish between a case, where the prince commands a thing evidently unjust, and where the matter is doubtful."; §XXVIII, a parliament "commanded by the prince to register an edict manifestly unjust, ought certainly to refuse it", and then "In those cases we should nobly exert our courage, and with all our might resist injustice, even at the peril of our lives."; §XXIX, "But, in cases where the matter is doubtful, the best resolution is certainly to obey." GRADE: VERIFIED for the two quoted sentences, ON ONE HOST ONLY. Read at https://constitution.org/2-Authors/burla/burla_2301.txt, which prints the corrected fifth edition (Cambridge, Mass., 1807) and runs from §I to §XXX with §XXXI absent, so the copy is not cut off. THE SECOND HOST THE AUTHOR USED REFUSES ME: lonang.com returned HTTP 403 on 2026-10-07, as it has before. THIS SUPERSEDES THE "NOT FOUND" FINDING of the fix list of 29 September and the reason given for Block 2's exclusion X04: the sentence IS in the text, at Part III ch. 1 §XXVIII, and the three chapters searched earlier (II.i.7, II.ii.6, II.iii.3) were the wrong ones. SOVEREIGN CITIZENS block, 2026-10-18: S07's Book II (Politic Law) pinpoints reach this record via the NUGENT 1807 COMBINED EDITION; Book I pinpoints go to SRC-199. The Korkman/Liberty Fund wording was not compared. PINPOINTS from this block: II.i.3 §§XVII, XXII, XXIII; II.i.4 §X; II.i.5 §§I, II, IV, VI, VII, XIII; II.i.6 §§VI, XIV; II.i.7 §§V, VIII, XXIV; II.ii.1 §§XIII, XXI; II.ii.5 §XII; II.ii.6 §§XXIX, XXXV; and from S07-AMEND, II.iii.1 §§XVIII and XXVIII read on constitution.org (Nugent translation), not compared with the 1807 print or LONANG. NOTE FOR THE REGISTER-WIDE REPAIR: this record's pre-existing edition mismatch (titled and dated as the 1751 Politic Law while carrying an 1807 combined-edition locator) is NOT fixed here, by the author's ruling. SOVEREIGN CITIZENS, EDIT PASS 2, 2026-10-18 (item C): five pinpoints added, all in Politic Law Part I, chapter 3, and ALL FIVE CHECKED WORD FOR WORD AGAINST THE 1807 NUGENT PRINT (archive.org, principlesofna02burl, read with pdftotext -layout). ZERO DIVERGENCES. PINPOINTS: I.iii.§X, the two acts in which civil government begins — "to unite together by means of a more particular society" and "to form this society under the dependance of a person, invested with an uncontrolable power, to the end, that he might maintain order and peace" (note the print's own spellings, "dependance" and "uncontrolable" with one l); I.iii.§XXII, what the institution of government costs — "man must renounce that power of disposing of his own person and actions, in a word, his independence"; I.iii.§XXIII, what replaces it — "Civil liberty is therefore, in the main, nothing more than natural liberty, divested of that part of it, which formed the independence of individuals, by the authority, which they have conferred on their sovereign"; I.iii.§XXIV, THE COUNTERWEIGHT, the two things reserved to the people — "the right of insisting, that their sovereign shall make good use of his authority, agreeably to the purposes, for which he was intrusted with it" and "the security, which prudence requires, that the subjects should reserve to themselves for the execution of their former right, a security absolutely necessary, and without which the people can never enjoy any solid liberty"; I.iii.§XXV, the full definition carrying both halves; I.iii.§XXIX, the retrospect — "When mankind renounced their independence and natural liberty, by giving masters to themselves, it was in order to be sheltered from the evils, with which they were afflicted, and in hopes, that, under the protection and care of their sovereign, they should meet with solid happiness". TWO OCR WARNINGS FROM THE ORDERING BLOCK, BOTH RESOLVED AGAINST THE PREMISE THAT THEY ARE LONANG'S: "sovereignity" at §XXI is in the 1807 print too — it occurs exactly once in the volume's 259 pages against 206 occurrences of "sovereignty", and that one occurrence is at §XXI, so the two texts agree there; and "Inasmuch" mid-sentence at §XIX is a capitalisation difference only, the print reading "but inasmuch as this liberty was made subject to reason". Neither word falls inside any quoted passage. NOTE ON THE SCAN: its own text layer is damaged elsewhere ("maimer" for manner, "wa6" for was, "remidied", "promots"), and "uncontrolable" straddles the p.18/19 page break as "un-" / "controlable", so a sequential probe for the whole word returns nothing on a page where it is present and exact. THE LOGGED EDITION MISMATCH ON THIS RECORD WAS NOT TOUCHED; it stays with the register-wide repair.
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SRC-225 · PRIORITY · Two Treatises of Government — John Locke (1689)
Pinpoint: not recorded · Access: Access status not recordedPINPOINTS from /the-righteous-and-the-corrupt-sovereign: Second Treatise §§135, 149, 202, 219, 220, 222, 225, 230, 240 - the legislative as "only a fiduciary power to act for certain ends" and never a right to destroy, enslave or designedly impoverish (135, 149); "Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins" and the officer who "ceases in that to be a magistrate" (202); the executive who neglects and abandons that charge (219); men never secure from tyranny if there is no means of escape till they are perfectly under it (220); ambition, fear, folly or corruption, and the breach of trust that forfeits the power (222); the long train of abuses making the design visible, and that revolutions happen not upon every little mismanagement (225); "a persuation, grounded upon manifest evidence", "the general course and tendency of things", and "Who can help it if they, who might avoid it..." (230); "The people shall be judge" (240). ALL VERIFIED AT SOURCE BY CONTENT 2026-10-03 on the Marxists Internet Archive chapter pages in 1690 spelling ("born", "persuation", "Where-ever"); the one §230 sentence marked modernized was read at Teaching American History. Section numbers are identical across editions; spelling is not. PINPOINTS from /evidence-of-the-breach: §§135, 198, 219, 220, 223, 225 - the power that "can never have a right to destroy, enslave, or designedly to impoverish the subjects" (135); the usurper with no title "till the people are both at liberty to consent, and have actually consented" (198); the executive who "neglects and abandons that charge, so that the laws already made can no longer be put in execution" (219); men never secure from tyranny "if there be no means to escape it till they are perfectly under it" (220); "People are not so easily got out of their old forms" (223); "all tending the same way" (225). ALL VERIFIED AT SOURCE BY CONTENT 2026-10-03. The §135 quotation is verbatim apart from a footnote asterisk the host prints after "never". §198 is on the host's ch17.htm and was confirmed there and on two further copies. ALSO CITED ON /natural-law and /your-duty from 2026-10-07 (Block 7, U40 and U46), for section 149. Both pages' authority tables carried BLACKSTONE's rendering under Locke's name ("Trust abused is thereby forfeited, and devolves to those who gave it" / "When such trust is abused..."). Both now carry Locke's own words as this record's text has them. MEASURED 2026-10-07: the JSON-LD citation array on each page holds only a bibliographic entry, not the wording, so the repair was two places and not four. SOVEREIGN CITIZENS block, 2026-10-18: S34 cites this record (Two Treatises of Government; SRC-208 is JEREMY Locke, The End of All Evil, a different author). PINPOINTS: §§119 and 122 on tacit consent and the obligation of a denizen; and from S34-AMEND, §§225 and 240 (ch. 19), read in the earlier breach research and to be confirmed on the same Pressbooks transcription before any further reliance.
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SRC-584 · PRIORITY · United States v. Benabe, 654 F.3d 753 (7th Cir.) — United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (2011)
Pinpoint: not recorded · Access: Access status not recordedVERIFIED AT SOURCE BY CONTENT 2026-09-22 (OpenJurist); decided 18 August 2011. "These theories should be rejected summarily, however they are presented." Quoted in full context on /pv-remediation, which sets it against the jurisdictional line rather than endorsing or dismissing it. PINPOINT from /the-righteous-and-the-corrupt-sovereign: 654 F.3d 753 at 767, "that person is not beyond the jurisdiction of the courts". VERIFIED AT SOURCE BY CONTENT 2026-10-03 at OpenJurist after CourtListener returned HTTP 202 bot mitigation. CITATION NOTE: this record's title carries no pinpoint and no year; the year 2011 is in the year field and the note records the decision date. Reporter, volume, first page and court all agree with the block's "654 F.3d 753, 767 (7th Cir. 2011)" - same case. Cited on the new page only for the point that no claimed status puts a person beyond the courts' jurisdiction, never for the government's legitimacy. ROUTE CHECKED 2026-10-03: OpenJurist, https://openjurist.org/654/f3d/753/united-states-v-benabe, after CourtListener returned HTTP 202 bot mitigation. The sentence is present there verbatim. STAR PAGINATION NOT SHOWN AT OPENJURIST: it prints no page marker at or near the sentence, so the pinpoint 767 was CARRIED from the block and was NOT confirmed at source between 2026-10-03 and 2026-10-08. IT IS NOW CONFIRMED - see the end of this note. OpenJurist is known to omit star pagination (already recorded in SESSION-HANDOFF as a limit of that host). ALSO CITED ON /evidence-of-the-breach, same pinpoint (654 F.3d 753 at 767) and same narrow use: only for the point that no claimed status puts a person beyond the jurisdiction of the courts. ALSO CITED ON /two-party-hive-mind, same pinpoint (654 F.3d 753 at 767) and same narrow use: only for the point that no claimed status puts a person beyond the jurisdiction of the courts. THE PINPOINT 767 STOOD AS CARRIED, NOT CONFIRMED, ON THREE PUBLISHED PAGES FROM 2026-10-03 TO 2026-10-08, when it was confirmed. Re-tried 2026-10-03: CourtListener returned HTTP 202 bot mitigation again, and OpenJurist, which does open, prints no star pagination at or near the sentence. PINPOINT 767 CONFIRMED 2026-10-08 BY THE AUTHOR, BY CONVERGENT CITING AUTHORITY AND NOT OFF A STAR-PAGINATED SCAN. Multiple independent courts pin-cite 654 F.3d at 767 for these exact two sentences: the Third Circuit in Ewans v. New Jersey (No. 25-1368); the Eleventh Circuit in Henry v. Fernandez-Rundle (No. 19-10650) and Trevino v. Florida (No. 16-15389); the Indiana Court of Appeals in Taylor-Bey v. State (49A05-1503-CR-123), which quotes BOTH sentences in full at 767; Bourdon v. Alaska, 370 P.3d 1116; and several district courts. THE METHOD, STATED PLAINLY SO IT IS NOT MISREAD LATER: the pinpoint is confirmed by convergent pin-cites in published opinions of TWO FEDERAL COURTS OF APPEALS AND A STATE APPELLATE COURT. It has still never been read off a star-paginated scan, and that is not a weakness of this confirmation - it is what the confirmation is. THE TWO HOSTS REMAIN AS RECORDED AND MUST NOT BE RETRIED: OpenJurist still prints no star pagination, and CourtListener still refuses automated access by robots policy. THIS RETIRES THE STANDING RISK ON THREE PUBLISHED PAGES: /the-righteous-and-the-corrupt-sovereign, /evidence-of-the-breach and /two-party-hive-mind. SOVEREIGN CITIZENS block, 2026-10-18: S42 cites this record. PINPOINT 767, which this record already carries as CONFIRMED by convergent citing authority, is S42's own pinpoint. S42-AMEND adds the paragraph's opening sentences at the same page - "Our intention is not to quash the presentation of creative legal arguments or novel legal theories asserted in good faith." - read this pass on CourtListener, whose star paging puts the whole paragraph on 767.
5. Counter-evidence
-
Benabe reserves good-faith argument: "Our intention is not to quash the presentation of creative legal arguments or novel legal theories asserted in good faith." [SRC-584]
Sources: SRC-584
6. Why this grade
ESTABLISHED as observed and in positive law; natural law agrees
The register defines ESTABLISHED as: Supported directly by primary texts or published findings.
7. Correction history
Later entries that mention this observation: HSRP-691.
8. Related observations
- HSRP-663 · ESTABLISHED · Courts answer jurisdiction challenges filed under the label summarily, often in a sentenceRelation: not recorded
- HSRP-666 · ESTABLISHED · Trial courts have let the label or the beliefs stand in for the inquiry the law requires, and appeals courts have reversed them for itRelation: not recorded
9. Where this appears on the site
Content pages that cite this observation inline:
- Sovereign Citizens“Courts reject, without exception found, the claim that a self-declared status puts a person beyond their jurisdiction — ESTABLISHED as observed and in positive law; natural law agrees”
- The Programmable Hive Mind“The scripts are another matter: pseudolegal "sovereign" claims held as a creed are hive content, and courts reject them, in the Seventh Circuit's words, as having "no conceivable validity in American law"; judge the claim, not the name ( SOVEREIGN CITIZENS ) — ESTABLISHED as observed and in positive law; natural law agrees”
Pages citing a source this observation rests on: /sovereign-citizens, /evidence-of-the-breach, /national-security-notice, /natural-law, /pv-remediation, /the-righteous-and-the-corrupt-sovereign, /your-duty, /two-party-hive-mind.
10. Open questions
Not yet recorded for this observation.
11. Machine block
The register record this page was generated from, with the derived fields added:
{
"grade": "ESTABLISHED",
"status": "AMENDED",
"category": "LAW",
"title": "Courts reject, without exception found, the claim that a self-declared status puts a person beyond their jurisdiction",
"entry_form": "full",
"note": "Cited on: /sovereign-citizens. Entered 2026-10-18 by the SOVEREIGN CITIZENS block, tag NEW-SC25 (brief item H25). THE PAGE'S OWN GRADE LINE READS: \"ESTABLISHED as observed and in positive law; natural law agrees\". Read directly: 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th Circuits; 9th, 10th, 11th only as quoted. No appellate decision accepting the claim was found. AMENDED 2026-10-18: Split grade. The summary form of the rejection is graded separately (HSRP-663 to HSRP-666).",
"n": 638,
"ref": "HSRP-638",
"cited_by": [
"SRC-1158",
"SRC-1189",
"SRC-1202",
"SRC-200",
"SRC-225",
"SRC-584"
],
"related": [
"HSRP-663",
"HSRP-666"
],
"category_name": "Natural Law",
"supplement": "029",
"entered": "2026-10-18",
"evidence": [
{
"statement": "Schneider, 910 F.2d at 1570: \"Since that defense has no conceivable validity in American law\" [SRC-1158]",
"sources": [
"SRC-1158"
]
},
{
"statement": "Benabe, 654 F.3d at 767: \"We have repeatedly rejected their theories of individual sovereignty, immunity from prosecution, and their ilk.\" [SRC-584]",
"sources": [
"SRC-584"
]
},
{
"statement": "Leugers: \"Arguments that a person is a \"sovereign citizen\" and not subject to the laws of the United States have uniformly been rejected by the courts as lacking any foundation in law.\" [SRC-1202] (p. 3)",
"sources": [
"SRC-1202"
]
},
{
"statement": "Askew: \"frivolous and entirely without merit\" [SRC-1189] (p. 2)",
"sources": [
"SRC-1189"
]
},
{
"statement": "Burlamaqui, II.i.3 §XVII: \"Liberty and independence of any superior are two very distinct things, which must not be confounded.\" [SRC-200]",
"sources": [
"SRC-200"
]
},
{
"statement": "Locke, §122: \"though they are bound, even in conscience, to submit to its administration, as far forth as any denison\" [SRC-225]",
"sources": [
"SRC-225"
]
}
],
"grade_rationale": "ESTABLISHED as observed and in positive law; natural law agrees",
"counter_evidence": [
{
"statement": "Benabe reserves good-faith argument: \"Our intention is not to quash the presentation of creative legal arguments or novel legal theories asserted in good faith.\" [SRC-584]",
"sources": [
"SRC-584"
]
}
],
"history": [
{
"date": "2026-10-18",
"event": "The SOVEREIGN CITIZENS amendment, item AH25A",
"reason": "Written by the main block as NEW-SC25, then amended by the amendment block in the same pass. The write-then-amend order is deliberate: the amendment is a separate authorial act and the record's history shows it. Fields changed: Grade; EVIDENCE; STATUS NOTES.",
"changes": [
{
"field": "Grade",
"from": "ESTABLISHED / ESTABLISHED",
"to": "ESTABLISHED / ESTABLISHED as observed and in positive law; natural law agrees"
},
{
"field": "EVIDENCE",
"from": "add 2 item(s)",
"to": "6 total"
},
{
"field": "STATUS NOTES",
"from": "add",
"to": "Split grade. The summary form of the rejection is graded sep..."
}
]
}
],
"appearances": [
"/sovereign-citizens",
"/the-hive-mind"
],
"missing_fields": [
"intervals",
"pinpoint for SRC-1158",
"pinpoint for SRC-1189",
"pinpoint for SRC-1202",
"pinpoint for SRC-200",
"pinpoint for SRC-225",
"pinpoint for SRC-584",
"relation to HSRP-663",
"relation to HSRP-666",
"open_questions"
]
}Generated from hsrp-research-notes.json (register generated 2026-11-08). Nothing on this page is written by hand. 10 fields not yet recorded.