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To: Reily

In your opinion yes.
However not as defined by the Constitution which I thought we were defending.

Treason is a unique offense in our constitutional order—the only crime expressly defined by the Constitution, and applying only to Americans who have betrayed the allegiance they are presumed to owe the United States. While the Constitution’s Framers shared the centuries-old view that all citizens owed a duty of loyalty to their home nation, they included the Treason Clause not so much to underscore the seriousness of such a betrayal, but to guard against the historic use of treason prosecutions by repressive governments to silence otherwise legitimate political opposition. Debate surrounding the Clause at the Constitutional Convention thus focused on ways to narrowly define the offense, and to protect against false or flimsy prosecutions.


39 posted on 12/31/2020 10:40:45 PM PST by tallyhoe
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To: tallyhoe
Please read Article III Section 3 US Constitution

The Founding Fathers purposely set the treason threshold very high. They had good historical reasons for doing so.

Here's how its been applied:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_convicted_of_treason#United_States

Things you will notice.

In the Burr trial a second level Founding Father Marshall set the treason threshold even higher. In our history to our credit we only had a two or so gross misapplications of the treason law - Munford & Blair Mountain. In WWII a national life & death situation if there ever was one. The government clearly went out of its way to apply the treason law with a moderating hand. Eventually just allowing those convicted for the most part to be freed and fade into history. Since then the government has further muddied the situation with it's ill-thought out "undeclared war" actions during the Cold War and now. Even serious acts of espionage are not defined as treason but violations of the Espionage Act, again something that underscores & emphasizes the intent of the Founding Fathers to make accusations of treason difficult.

Throwing around the word treason like is done on this site for politics we don't like could eventually have dangerous consequences. It could wear down the barrier so deliberately and carefully built up by the Founding Fathers and by historical usage. Cry treason and act to apply it to someone today, tomorrow it could be applied to you !

40 posted on 01/01/2021 9:36:01 AM PST by Reily
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