I can think of several incidents when this could have been used, and wasn’t. I just wonder what makes this case different. It seems to me Michael Moore and Soros have been guilty of this, as well as those that pronounced “death to Bush” or said they would stop at nothing to see him out of office...
As to this group I don’t know anything about them and have no idea what they may be guilty of-or not. I will hold my judgement about this being right or wrong. It is definately something to keep an eye on and see how it all unfolds.
Well, seditious conspiracy requires a lot more than simply advocating against the government, even if that involves advocating the overthrow of the government or the killing of government officials. There actually has to be an to use force against the government.
As much as I despise both Moore and Soros, I don’t think they’ve quite done that.
Now, the next section of the U.S. Code, 18 U.S.C. § 2385, does make it a crime to advocate the violent overthrow of the government, as well as to be a member of a group which does so. That section is, I think, a bit more dangerous than the seditious conspiracy section, though “advocacy” in that context requires that someone “urge” or “plead for” the use of force against the government.
As a bit of background, the seditious conspiracy section dates back to 1861 - it was one of the earliest pieces of legislation signed by Lincoln. The “advocating overthrow of the government” section was part of the Smith Act of 1940, and was primarily targeted at communists, particularly communist immigrants.