Articles: 'Sedition' Is Constitutional
There were three major Sedition Acts historically: one passed during the Adams administration in the later part of the 18th century, one passed during WWI, and one passed during the FDR administration. Although the 1940 Smith Act is still on the books, all of these statutes have been nullified by the Supreme Court.
In Yates v. United States, the SCOTUS ruled that citizens could even go as far as to advocate the forceful overthrow of the United States government (as long as these discussions were passive in nature.) This case dealt with Communist subversives, a paradigm much more detrimental to the system by which Americans are governed than the much-hyped tea party movement, which simply seeks a return to constitutionally limited government.
Additional cases include
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan and
Watts v. United States. Although the Sedition Acts expired some years before these cases were decided, the wording is useful. In
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the SCOTUS declared, "Although the Sedition Act was never tested in this Court, the attack upon its validity has carried the day in the court of history." In
Watts v. United States,Justice
William O. Douglas concurred: "The Alien and Sedition Laws constituted one of our sorriest chapters; and I had thought we had done with them forever ... Suppression of speech as an effective police measure is an old, old device, outlawed by our Constitution." And finally,
Watkins v. United States held that those accused under the Smith Act could rely upon the First Amendment as defense, holding that "[a] congressional investigation is subject to the command that Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech or press or assembly." This last case was especially relevant during the so-called Red Scare, when hundreds of suspected Communists were the left's cherished victims of America's own show trials.
This history reveals that, apart from cases where incitement can be shown, using the word "sedition" against political enemies is out of place in a free country. Any American may oppose government policies without advocating the violent overthrow of the entire political system. Those who capriciously bandy about terms like "sedition" are knowingly committing an act of slander, since the charge of sedition requires the intent to upset law and order, a motivation nowhere present in the political movement collectively referred to as the "tea party."
