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Subversive Groups Must Now Register In South Carolina
Hugh Pickens writes "The Raw Story reports that terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina's Secretary of State and declare their intentions — or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison. The 'Subversive Activities Registration Act' passed last year in South Carolina and now officially on the books states that 'every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States ... shall register with the Secretary of State.'"
Ironic that this is passed by the state that STARTED THE CIVIL WAR!
(and inciting the overthrow of the government isn't just simple free speech folks. If you think it is maybe you're so messed up this law will work on you)
_inciting_ the overthrow isn't free speech, no. But _advocating_ it certainly is. And that's one of the things this law requires registering. And "subversive" is a quite vague word - by some definitions simply saying "Obama is a terrible president" could be considered subversive.
Reminds me of the many sedition acts we've had here in the U.S. - all of which were eventually ruled unconstitutional.
And it's exactly that ammendment which this law is blatantly contrary too...
The legislature who passed this might have good intentions, but I hope the courts strike this one down post haste.
I think this is a joke. I highly doubt a group of people willing to kill themselves by crashing planes into buildings would be disueded by the threat of jail time and a fine.
And that, of course, is the entire point of this legislation. The idea is that "subversives" won't register. That way you get to fine and imprison people for belonging to organisations, all the time pretending that you are not infringing on their rights of speech or assembly.
Cute.
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
Right. It doesn't impact terrorists. It impacts citizens who hold some radical views.
They want to form an organization that supports overthrowing the government (without any intention of resorting to terrorism, violence, or other illegal acts) -- voting, or getting people elected to state legislatures to initiate an Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States to call a Convention for proposing Amendments, is a way of overthrowing the government too (peacefully)...
Now suddenly they must register as "terrorists" or face jail.
Somewhere, there's an irony in this being passed by the state that was first to secede from the Union and instigate the Civil War.
American Third Position
Finally, a real choice!
Interesting. So when Jefferson said “Every generation needs a new revolution” and “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive”, he would have easily been facing 10 years and a $25K fine for advising the [duty|necessity] of overthrowing the government
Perhaps they need a law that requires registration of fuckwit legislators, so when they pass laws like this we can send them to Gitmo or something.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Not to mention the Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination.
This isn't funny. This is sad. This is how political offices are won in America, especially conservative seats. /Is libertarian
Good point. By the same logic of this law, maybe folks should have to register all those Confederate flags they're so fond of down there.
Wow, I think you're on to the best campaign against this law. Find the application form and start filling it out:
Organization: The Confederacy
Founded: 1861
Members: We don't keep membership records. However, we have our own flags, confederate seal, lots of supporters, we regularly do military training missions under the guise of reenactments and most of all, we're tried it once already. You should probably get all our members to register to risk 10 years in jail.
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