Citizens have rights
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Editor,
In response to “people who advocate overthrow should be excluded from citizenship.”
As citizens we do have the constitutional right to advocate any belief system we wish, even if that belief is the overthrow of our own government, and we have the right to teach this belief publicly if we so desire. This is the issue at hand, and it is very important to understand if we are to undertake the conversation about who has a Constitutional right to citizenship in the U.S. and who does not.
I am not teaching nor preaching overthrow, but am making the point that a difference does exists, and is recognized as such in the U.S. criminal code, between advocating a belief and advocating an action.
The “Smith Act” of 1940, and subsequent amendments, make clear a distinction between advocating for a belief in violent or forcible overthrow, and advocating for “action” in violent or forcible overthrow, therefore it is necessary to consult this area of U.S. code in order to understand this area of Constitutional law.
Violent or forcible overthrow, when taught as belief or theology, are legal undertakings that do not constitute grounds for revocation of citizenship, provided that the teaching of violent or forcible overthrow does not include an “advocacy for action,” urging an individual “to do something, immediately or in the future,” rather than to merely believe in a doctrine.
Furthermore, when conviction of a violation of the “Smith Act” results, the punishment does not include expulsion nor revocation of citizenship, but instead calls for a certain numbers of years of incarceration in a correctional institute in this country.
This is where teacher, and student of the Constitution must be careful not to confuse the issues of a legal belief and an illegal conspiracy to “action.” Please be careful in your search for the truth. Do not be fooled by those who use the rhetoric of religious bigotry in order to teach the exclusion of certain individuals, or groups of individuals, from citizenship simply because of their system of beliefs or religion. Read the Smith Act.
John Swenson
Ronan
