Sedition & seditious conspiracy

Four Federalist-era laws signed by President John Adams. The Sedition Act made it a crime to publish "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" against the government or its officials. Used to prosecute Jeffersonian newspaper editors and even a congressman; it expired in 1801 and is universally remembered as a violation of the free-press principle, never tested by the modern Supreme Court but repudiated in the "court of history" (as New York Times v. Sullivan later put it).

A WWI statute criminalizing interference with military operations, recruitment, and the draft, and the transmission of national-defense information. It was the vehicle for Schenck, Debs, and Abrams. Much of it remains in force today and is the modern basis for leak/espionage prosecutions.

An amendment to the Espionage Act that vastly expanded it — making it a crime to utter or publish "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the U.S. government, flag, or armed forces. It was the high-water mark of American speech suppression. Repealed on December 13, 1920; the underlying Espionage Act was left intact.

The first peacetime federal sedition law since 1798. Title I made it a crime to knowingly advocate, or organize a group that advocates, the overthrow of any U.S. government by force or violence, or to publish material so advocating. About 215 people were indicted, mostly alleged Communists and Socialists. Its scope was upheld in Dennis (1951) and then sharply narrowed in Yates (1957); it is still on the books but effectively dormant.

"If two or more persons ... conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States ... or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States ... they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both."

The modern seditious-conspiracy statute (roots in an 1861 Civil War-era law). It punishes two or more persons who conspire to "overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force" the U.S. government, "to levy war against them," "to oppose by force the authority thereof," or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any U.S. law. The penalty was raised to "imprisoned not more than twenty years" (from six) by a 1956 amendment. The crime is the agreement to use FORCE — not the holding or voicing of any opinion.

"...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government..." A foundational statement of popular sovereignty and of a people's right to change their government. It is a political-philosophy charter of the founding era — not operative law that confers a defense to prosecution.

"All political power is inherent in the people... they have at all times the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient" — subject only to preserving a republican form of government. A representative example of the state constitutional "alter or abolish" clauses. Like the Declaration, it states a principle of popular sovereignty exercised by the people collectively through lawful means; it is not a license for an individual to use force, and it is not a defense to a § 2384 charge.