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sedition definition - legal

n

An activity or communication aimed at overthrowing governmental authority. Sedition acts were passed in the United States as early as 1798 and as recently as World War I. The United States Supreme Court ruled in 1919 that communications urging sedition could only be punished if there was a clear and present danger. Otherwise, it was a contradiction of the First AmendmentÂ’s guarantee of free speech.

Webster's New World Law Dictionary Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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