The state of South Carolina has a new law on the books: the Subversive Activities Registration Act. Basically it says that if in any way you support the notion of violent overthrow of the government at any level (even dog catcher), you must register with the state. There's a $5 filing fee. And the punishment for failure to register is pretty stiff: fines of up to $25,000 and imprisonment for up to 10 years.
I hope – really, I hope – that the South Carolina legislature is not so naive as to believe that such a law will coerce hardened terrorists into registering themselves. I'm guessing that what they were really after was a “hook” to let them file criminal charges against someone that law enforcement discovered who was engaged in such activities.
But here's the problem: the language in the statute is so vague, so open-ended, that almost anybody could be ensnared by it. Just think: have you ever jokingly said something like this: that we'd be better off if a moderate sized metorite smashed the Capitol while both houses were in session? That'd do it – you're a criminal under this statute (unless you had actually registered!), and you might be going to jail.
This just begs for a Constitutional challenge on first amendment grounds...
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