From: MarkLFischer at aol.com
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 22:50:33 EDT
Subject: [WSFA] Re: The end of a Washington mystery
To: WSFAlist at WSFA.org
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

In a message dated 6/2/2005 7:41:34 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
yahoo at omniphile.com writes:

>Hmmm...I wonder if going to the Soviet Union and engaging in  protests
>against the United States during the Cold War years would fit  that
definition?

Guidelines on this subject are fairly clear.  Political expression,  even
political expression that an enemy might like to hear, does not qualify as
treason.  "Aid and comfort" means *actual* aid and comfort, not  ego-stroking.
Buying film for your friend the spy qualifies, wearing an  "Up With Saddam"
t-shirt does not.

''[T]he record does suggest that the clause was intended to guarantee
nonviolent political processes against prosecution under any theory or charge,  the
burden of which was the allegedly seditious character of the conduct in
question. The most obviously restrictive feature of the constitutional  definition
is its omission of any provision analogous to that branch of the  Statute of
Edward III which punished treason by compassing the death of the  king. In a
narrow sense, this provision perhaps had no proper analogue in a  republic.
However, to interpret the silence of the treason clause in this way  alone does
justice neither to the technical proficiency of the Philadelphia  draftsmen nor
to the practical statecraft and knowledge of English political  history among
the Framers and proponents of the Constitution. The charge of  compassing the
king's death had been the principal instrument by which 'treason'  had been
used to suppress a wide range of political opposition, from acts  obviously
dangerous to order and likely in fact to lead to the king's death to  the mere
speaking or writing of views restrictive of the royal  authority.''  J. Hurst,
The Law of Treason in the United States--Selected  Essays (Westport, Conn.:
1971), 152-153.

People throw terms with very clear legal definition around with gay  abandon,
and they don't actually understand what they're saying.  I was  amused, a few
years back, to hear assorted pundits attempting to dust off the  Alien and
Sedition Acts to condemn dissent against the war...completely  overlooking the
repeal of those laws shortly after John Adams left office.

Mark