US PERSON needs to clarify thinking about what happened at the Capitol on January 6th. Language matters, especially in matters of national import. There is a difference between the dictionary definition of the word, "sedition", and the federal criminal offense of "seditious conspiracy". Under the dictionary definition of the word sedition, which Webster has as, "incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority", Killer was out of bounds of acceptable, protected speech during his January 6th rally rant, opinions of celebrity law professors notwithstanding. Several insurrectionists have already admitted they were inspired by his call to action, and even felt "invited" by Dear Leader to storm the Capitol while a joint session was in progress to ratify the election. It is the dictionary sense US employed in his contemporary post headline. This definition is equivalent to the words used in the House to impeach Killer two times, "incitement to insurrection". The House authors chose not to use the word sedition because it could easily be confused with the criminal code definition of the word.
Seditious conspiracy under 18 USC 2384 requires an agreement between two or more persons to use force to "....delay the execution of any law of the United States" Whether there is admissible evidence of an agreement to forcefully act among the piles of electronic messages, witness statements, and video footage remains to be seen. Certainly from what the public knows now, it appears that such an agreement exists and is widespread among the extremists, and who may have even been supported by sympathetic lawmakers. Democrats must move quickly towards a Senate trial if they hope to convict Killer of his high crime before the outrage among senators dissipates and partisan retrenchment begins.
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| credit: K. Siers, Charlotte Observe;, Wackydoodle sez: American carnage, you bet'cha! |
*Crimes of sedition have a long and complex history in the United States going back to 1798 and the Adams administration. The Alien and Sedition Act was eventually passed by a federalist Congress, but was not popular. Under the broad terms of this Act, which basically made it a crime to criticize the federal government, twenty Democratic-Republican newspaper editors were charged and some imprisoned. Since judicial review by the Supreme Court had not yet been invented by Chief Justice Marshall, opposition to the laws centered in the states. Notably Virginia and Kentucky passed laws to reject the federal statute. The statue was allowed to expire when Jefferson came into power. However, parts of it were still inforce at the time of WWII (Alien Enemies Act) and were used to imprison suspected "dangerous enemy aliens".
In 1918 Congress passed the Sedition Act that was orchestrated by Wilson's reactionary attorney general, A. Mitchel Palmer. He was also responsible for the infamous "Palmer Raids" directed at pacifists, socialists, and anti-war activists. Wilson consider the law crucial to the war effort. The most famous prosecution under this act, which prohibited speech interfering with the war effort, was the conviction of Eugene Debs, a prominent socialist labor leader and pacifist. His conviction for violating the act was upheld by the Supreme Court, but his sentence commuted when the law was repealed in 1921.
The law prohibiting seditious conspiracies has its roots in the Civil War. It makes conspiracies to use force to overthrow or interfere with the government of the US a felony. The most prominent prosecutions under this law were against Puerto Rican nationalists. The first was Pedro Albizu Campos, who along with nine accomplices, were convicted in 1937 and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Other cases against Puerto Rican nationalists followed including one in 1954 against Lolita Lebron and three others. They shot thirty pistol rounds into the House chamber from the gallery, wounding five legislators. Given long prison sentences, Jimmy Carter commuted their sentences in 1978 and 1979. They returned to Puerto Rico.
In 2010 nine members of a militia group known at the "Hutaree" were charged with seditious conspiracy in an effort to kill law enforcement officers. They were acquitted by a judge in 2012, due to insufficient evidence. Given the history of sedition prosecutions against leftists, aliens, and minorities, it is remarkable that charges of sedition are being considered by the Department of Justice for the right-wing insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol at the invitation of the President.