Seditious conspiracy

Seditious conspiracy is a crime in various jurisdictions of conspiring against the authority or legitimacy of the state. As a form of sedition, it has been described as a serious but lesser counterpart to treason, targeting activities that undermine the state without directly attacking it.[1]

For the Indian nationalist conspiracy during World War I, see Hindu–German Conspiracy.

Common law
Main article: Sedition § History in common law jurisdictions

In common law jurisdictions, seditious conspiracy is an agreement by two or more persons to do any act with the intention to excite hatred or contempt against the persons or institutions of state, to excite the alteration by unlawful means of a state or church matter established by law, to raise discontent among the people, or to promote ill will and enmnity between classes. Criticising a policy or state institution for the purpose of obtaining lawful reform is not seditious.[2] Seditious conspiracy, like other forms of sedition, developed during the late medieval period to apply to activities that threatened the social order but fell short of constructive treason. Enforcement of both types of offence under the Tudors and Stuarts grew increasingly harsh; courts judged the accused's intentions suspiciously, allowing juries to decide only whether the alleged events had occurred. A trend of jury nullifications in the 18th century ultimately limited the scope of seditious crimes.[3]

Charges of seditious conspiracy were notably brought in the United Kingdom against Irish radicals and Chartists in the 19th century[2][4] before being abolished in 2010.[5] The charge has been used against labour activists in both Canada and Australia, such as the leaders of the 1919 Winnipeg general strike and the Sydney Twelve. In British India, the charge was used to imprison independence activists, and the extension of their imprisonment by the 1919 Rowlatt Act led to Mahatma Gandhi's call for nonviolent resistance.

United States

In the United States, seditious conspiracy is codified at 18 U.S.C. § 2384:

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, 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, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

This law was enacted in 1861 after secessionists gained control of most slaveholding states, although it was originally sought by Senator Stephen A. Douglas in response to John Brown's 1859 raid on a federal arsenal. A substantially similar offense appeared in the Sedition Act of 1798, which expired in 1801.[6]

Puerto Rican nationalists

Puerto Rican radicals seeking the island's independence from the United States have been charged and convicted on multiple occasions. In 1936, Pedro Albizu Campos and other leaders of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party were prosecuted. Another seventeen members of the PRNP were charged after four of them carried out the 1954 Capitol shooting. In 1980, Puerto Rican Nationalist Carmen Valentín Pérez and nine others were charged, and were each given sentences of up to 90 years in prison.[7]

Far-right paramilitary groups

Seditious conspiracy charges have been brought several times, for the most part unsuccessfully, against far-right groups, including white nationalists and followers of the Patriot movement, whose adherents believe that the federal government is illegitimate. In 1940 the government arrested seventeen members of the Christian Front, followers of Charles Coughlin; all of the charges ended in dismissal or acquittal.[8] In the Fort Smith sedition trial, Louis Beam and nine other white supremacists were indicted for the activites of The Order and The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord. All ten defendants and four other defendants indicted for different crimes were acquitted in April 1988 after a two-month trial. In 2010, nine members of Hutaree were charged.[9] They were acquitted due to the prosecution's reliance on circumstantial evidence.[10]

Eleven members of the Oath Keepers, including leader Stewart Rhodes, were charged with seditious conspiracy in January 2022 for of planning to violently oppose the certification of the 2020 Electoral College results in the 2021 United States Capitol attack.[11] One of the accused Oath Keepers pled guilty to seditious conspiracy, as well as obstructing a government proceeding, on March 2, 2022.[12] A second Oath Keeper pled guilty to the same charges on April 29, 2022.[13] On May 4, 2022, a third Oath Keeper pled guilty to seditious conspiracy;[14] notably, he had not been indicted with Rhodes and his ten codefendants in January.[15]

Others

The government charged three members of the Buffalo, New York-based El Ariete Society, a Communist group, in 1920. The defendants were acquitted by a judge as the government failed to prove that the defendants had any connection with the seditious publications that were presented as evidence, or that any active conspiracy had existed.[16]

Three members of the United Freedom Front, a Marxist group, were convicted in 1989 for a series of attacks against corporate, government and military targets.[17]

In 1995 Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, a prominent Muslim cleric, and nine others were convicted of seditious conspiracy for planning to bomb New York City landmarks after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.[18]

See also

References
  1. Chapin, Bradley (2010). Criminal Justice in Colonial America, 1606-1660.
  2. Stephen, James Fitzjames (1883). A Digest of the Criminal Law.
  3. Cressy, David (2010). Dangerous Talk.
  4. Belchem, John (2000). Merseypride: Essays in Liverpool Exceptionalism. p. 142.
  5. "Coroners and Justice Act 2009: Section 73", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 2009 c. 25 (s. 73), retrieved 19 September 2015
  6. Tarrant, Catharine M. "To 'insure domestic Tranquility': Congress and the Law of Seditious Conspiracy, 1859-1861". The American Journal of Legal History. 17 (2): 107.
  7. ProLIBERTAD: ProLIBERTAD Campaign for the Freedom of Puerto Rican Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War: Arm the Spirit 30 October 1995. Hartford-hwp.com May 29, 2013.
  8. Gallagher, Charles (2021). Nazis of Copley Square.
  9. "Nine Members of a Militia Group Charged with Seditious Conspiracy and Related Offenses", press release, United States Department of Justice, March 29, 2010.
  10. Guarino, Mark (March 27, 2012). "Hutaree militia acquitted of plot to foment revolution". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2021-01-19.
  11. "DOJ indicts Oath Keepers leader, members on seditious conspiracy charges involving Jan. 6 attack". ABC News. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
  12. "Accused Oath Keeper pleads guilty in Capitol riot case". NBC News. Retrieved 2022-03-04.
  13. Molly Curley (April 29, 2022). "Guyton man pleads guilty to Jan. 6 charges". WSAV.
  14. Ryan J. Reilly (May 4, 2022). "Third Oath Keepers defendant pleads guilty to sedition in Capitol riot case". NBC News.
  15. "READ: Seditious conspiracy indictment related to US Capitol attack". CNN. January 13, 2022.
  16. Chafee, Zechariah, Jr. (1996). Freedom of Speech.
  17. "After 9 Months of Delays, U.S. Tries 3 for Sedition". The New York Times. AP. 1989-01-12. Retrieved 2009-10-28.
  18. Perez-Pena, Richard (2 October 1995). "The Terror Conspiracy—The Charges—A Gamble Pays Off as the Prosecution Uses an Obscure 19th-Century Law (Published 1995)". The New York Times.
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