Sedition in the United States
Sedition Definition
In criminal law. The raising commotions or disturbances in the state. 195 Mich. 293. It is a revolt against legitimate authority, not amounting to insurrection. Excitement of discontent (according to the definition of Sedition based on the Cyclopedic Law Dictionary ) against the government, or of resistance to lawful authority; conduct tending to treason, but without an overt act. The distinction between “sedition” and “treason” consists in this, that though the ultimate object of sedition is a violation of the public peace, or at least such a course of measures as evidently engenders it, yet it does not aim at direct and open violence against the laws, or the subversion of the constitution.
The obnoxious act of July 14, 1798 (1 Story, U. S, Laws, 543), was called the “sedition law,” because Its profesged object was to prevent disturbances. In the Scotch law, sedition is either verbal or real. Verbal is inferred from the uttering of words tending to create discord between the king and his people; real sedition is generally committed by convocating together any considerable number of people, without lawful authority, uiider the pretense of redressing some public grievance, to the disturbing of the public peace. Read more about Sedition in the legal Dictionaries.
Seditious Speech Law: Whitney v. California
by Thomas L. Libby
In May 1927, on a writ of error, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the conviction of a San Francisco activist for violating California’s Criminal Syndicalism Law, which made it illegal to advocate unlawful force to effect political change (Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)). The Court found Charlotte Anita Whitney’s membership in the Communist Labor Party (CLP) to be felonious advocacy of violent activism. (She was eventually pardoned by Gov. Clement C. Young.)
Whitney had broken away from the Socialist Party of America to champion communism as patriotic, and she was arrested in Oakland after giving a speech in November 1919.
Whitney was a pioneering suffragette, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field’s niece, and said to be a descendant of Mayflower pilgrims. The Alameda County prosecutor, finding Whitney to have a conveniently high profile, argued that her CLP membership gave leverage to Bolshevism. The defense unsuccessfully asserted Fourteenth Amendment claims to First Amendment freedoms.
Seditious speech law was then guided by Schenck v. United States (249 U.S. 47 (1919)); Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes had famously explained that subversive expressions enjoyed no First Amendment protection when they create “a clear and present danger” of bringing about “substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.”
Whitney partly refined Schenck by emphasizing an imminence requirement, but it is best remembered for Justice Louis Brandeis’s landmark concurrence, which expanded Holmes’s concept of the “marketplace of ideas.
The Court later overruled Whitney (Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444, 449 (1969)), holding that the government couldn’t punish the Ku Klux Klan’s mere advocacy of violence unless it intended to incite and was likely to produce imminent lawless action.
In the United States Constitution
According to the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, about its article titled “Sedition”, this concept is a comprehensive term for offenses against the authority of the government not amounting to treason. Such offenses might include the spreading of disaffection or disloyalty, conspiracy to commit insurrection, or any subversive activity. Sedition tends toward treason, but does not is treason.
Sedition in Foreign Legal Encyclopedias
For starting research in the law of a foreign country:
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Sedition | Sedition in the World Legal Encyclopedia. |
| Sedition | Sedition in the European Legal Encyclopedia. |
| Sedition | Sedition in the Asian Legal Encyclopedia. |
| Sedition | Sedition in the UK Legal Encyclopedia. |
| Sedition | Sedition in the Australian Legal Encyclopedia. |
Introduction to Alien and Sedition Acts: (1798)
In the context of the legal history: Sought to prevent political protestors and possible spies out of the United States at a time when war with France was expected. The 3 alien acts were aimed at Irish and French immigrants, who were mostly pro- French. The Sedition Act banned the publishing of false or malevolent writings against the government and the stirring up of opposition to any act of Congress or the president.
Alien and Sedition Acts in the U.S. Legal History
Summary
Four acts passed in 1798 designed to curb criticism of the federal government. Adopted during a period of conflict with France, the acts lengthened the period before an immigrant could obtain citizenship, gave the president power to deport dangerous aliens, and provided for the prosecution of those who wrote “false, scandalous and malicious” writings against the U.S. government.
Resources
In the context of the legal history:
See Also
- International Treaties
- Multilateral Treaties
Alien and Sedition Acts in the U.S. Legal History
Summary
Four acts passed in 1798 designed to curb criticism of the federal government. Adopted during a period of conflict with France, the acts lengthened the period before an immigrant could obtain citizenship, gave the president power to deport dangerous aliens, and provided for the prosecution of those who wrote “false, scandalous and malicious” writings against the U.S. government.
Resources
See Also
- Cold War
- Communism
- Freedom of Speech
- Socialism
- Sedition Laws
- Sunset Law
- Misprision
Further Reading (Articles)
India: Drop Sedition Charges against Cartoonist, States News Service; October 12, 2012
India: Drop Sedition Charges against Cartoonist Archaic, Abusive Law Should Be Repealed, States News Service; September 11, 2012
The False Analogy between Vilification and Sedition, Melbourne University Law Review; April 1, 2009; Gelber, Katharine
Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are not guilty of sedition – but over-the-top ‘tea-party’ rhetoric doesn’t help.(Opinion)(Viewpoint essay), The Christian Science Monitor; April 23, 2010; Hemmer, Nicole
INDIA: REPEAL SEDITION LAW; PROSECUTIONS USED TO SILENCE POLITICAL DISSENT., States News Service; January 5, 2011
Sedition, Security and Human Rights: ‘Unbalanced’ Law Reform in the ‘War on Terror’, Melbourne University Law Review; December 1, 2006; Bronitt, Simon Stellios, James
Sedition Law Is Anachronistic, Tehelka; July 28, 2014
Sedition Laws Continue to Stir Debate, Fear, The Quill; June 1, 2006; Work, Clemens P.
Malaysia: Drop Sedition Charges for Opposition Leader; Repeal Sedition Act; Ensure Protection for Peaceful Campaign Activities, States News Service; April 10, 2013
`Sedition Act is relevant’, New Straits Times; January 27, 2011; V. Anbalagan
1 Democratic Protest. 8,000 Sedition Cases. Is This a Free Country?, Tehelka; September 3, 2012
Treason of the Clerk: Accused of Sedition, a V.A. Nurse Beats the Rap, Reason; July 1, 2006; Weigel, Davi
‘ Nota Fit Case for Sedition Atall’, Mail Today (New Delhi, India); September 11, 2012
Drop sedition case against Binayak Sen: Human Rights Watch, Hindustan Times (New Delhi, India); January 6, 2011
Throw out ‘ sedition’ from the penal code., Mail Today (New Delhi, India); December 28, 2010
Malaysia: Quash Unjust Conviction of Prominent Lawyer; Karpal Singh Case Shows Need to Revoke Sedition Act, States News Service; March 9, 2014
The Lawmakers Last Laugh ; Cartoonist Trivedi Is Charged with Sedition. India Is Appalled, but the State Is Unmoved, India Today; September 24, 2012; Kiran Tare Sonali Acharjee
Analysis: Students fight sedition charges from 1919, NPR Talk of the Nation; January 10, 2006; FRANK STASIO
The return of adultery and sedition.(the concepts of adultery and sedition are receiving attention on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC)(Column)(Brief Article), The New Leader; April 6, 1998; Schorr, Daniel
Left Demands: Charge Ted Cruz with Sedition, Examiner (Washington, D.C.), The; October 18, 2013; York, Byron
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