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While the number of armed militias in the United States is decreasing, the Anti-Defamation League nonetheless is concerned about increased violence, anti-government activists and anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.

Late last week, the ADL released a national report titled "Vigilante Justice: Militias and Common Law Courts Wage War Against the Government." The study shows that militia membership numbers are down but criminal activity is up. It is the third ADL report on this topic, the second since the Oklahoma City bombings.

Barbara Bergen, director of the ADL Central Pacific Region, said of the findings, "We have to walk a fine line between keeping the spotlight on the activities of these groups and…becoming paranoid about their importance.

"People in these movements are part of a lunatic fringe. We laughed when they were tax protesters. But since they've showed a propensity for violence, we can't dismiss them that easily."

In the last 18 months, militias have expanded in five states, remained stable in 20 states and declined elsewhere. However, other anti-government activities are flourishing. Among them are Internet sites, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and "common law courts."

Common law court activists ignore U.S. courts and law enforcement agencies, "replacing" them with parallel structures of their own creation. They cite a number of government acts and documents to justify their actions, claiming that the government has "stolen their power."

"None of it makes sense," said Abigail Wolf, associate director for the regional ADL office. "They invoke everything from the Monroe Doctrine to the Old Testament. It's gobbledygook."

Common law "jurists" render unenforceable judgments regarding legal disputes, fabricate fake legal documents like property liens and criminal indictments and attempt to file them in U.S. courts.

According to Wolf, these measures are proving to be more than mere nuisance.

For example, in Modesto, members of a tax-protest group called the Juris Christian Assembly are currently being tried in U.S. District Court in Fresno on charges related to the 1994 beating of Stanislaus County Clerk Karen Mathews.

Following a Juris Christian Assembly "trial" and "conviction" of the Internal Revenue Service, members of the group tried to file phony liens. Mathews repeatedly refused to file the documents.

Mathews alleges that individuals involved in the Juris Christian Assembly assaulted her in her garage, holding a gun to her temple and firing it repeatedly. The gun was empty of bullets. Mathews claims her attackers said to her, "Let this be a warning."

Similarly, in Santa Rosa, John Patrick McGuire, who studied at the Freemen's Montana compound in 1995, was recently arrested and charged with harassing and threatening two California judges. McGuire's father reportedly attempted to bail him out of a Sonoma County jail using a bogus Freemen check. Bail was denied.

Wolf said these cases show that militias and common law court activists "aren't just wackos with computers and typewriters filling out phony documents. They're willing to back it up."

While the militia and common law court movement appears to be merely anti-government, it is also laced with anti-Semitism, Wolf added.

Anti-government and classic anti-Semitic literature and propaganda is hawked at meetings, conventions, gun shows and across the Internet.

In addition, a number of these organizations espouse "Christian Identity." Unlike Christianity, Christian Identity claims Northern European white Anglo-Saxon Protestants are the true Israelites and that Jews were spawned from the coupling of Eve and Satan.

"The militia and common law court movement has attracted old-time anti-Semites to its ranks. It's not uncommon to see [members of each] on the same platform," Bergen explained.

Besides tracking the movements of militias and common law court activists, the ADL has drafted anti-paramilitary training and common law court statutes.

To date, 24 states have made it illegal for non-law enforcement groups to do survivalist training without a permit. Twelve states are considering the common law statute that makes it a crime to impersonate a representative of the court.