South Carolina now requires ’subversives’ to register

From Raw Story - by Daniel Tencer

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 state's "Subversive Activities Registration Act," passed last year 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."

There's even a $5 filing fee.

By "subversive organization," the law means "every corporation, society, association, camp, group, bund, political party, assembly, body or organization, composed of two or more persons, which directly or indirectly advocates, advises, teaches or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States [or] of this State."
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A PDF of the registration form can be found here, courtesy of FitsNews.

The law also gives subversive organizations "subject to foreign control" 30 days to register with the state after setting up shop in South Carolina.

While the intention of the law is apparently aimed at Islamic terrorists, it's unclear in the law's wording whether it can be applied to right-wing militias, some of whom have reputedly called for the overthrow of the US government. The law states that "fraternal" and "patriotic" groups are exempt from the law, but only if they don't "contemplate the overthrow of the government."

While the law is clearly redundant -- there are plenty of statutes at the state and federal level through which terrorists can be prosecuted -- it reflects a not-uncommon pattern in some states of "doubling down" against particular crimes.

For instance, South Carolina is among those states which require drug dealers to declare their illegal income, or face additional criminal penalties on top of the already established penalties for buying, possessing and selling drugs.

The South Carolina blog FitsNews describes the new law as "bureaucracy for terrorists."

"In the long and storied history of utterly retarded legislation in South Carolina, we may have finally found the legal statute that takes the cake for sheer stupidity, which we think you’ll agree is saying something," the unsigned blog posting scathingly commented.

http://rawstory.com/2010/02/south-carolinas-subversive-activities-registration-act-force/

the five dollar fee is for

the five dollar fee is for processing and for the state's official document (with the copy of the state seal) that duly notes that you have registered with the state as a subversive organization entitling you to official notice should any state actions concerning revolutionary organizations be occurring under the state's auspices. they also send along u.s. and confederate flag lapel pins. fucking mormons.

wow. im not sure whether im

wow. im not sure whether im scared, pissed off, unsuprised, or shocked.

this is fucking bonkers!!

to me though, this seems like another attempt for the State to crack down on homegrown dissent, and im more than willing to bet that this law will be used against our camp, unfortunately.
hopefully i am wrong.

this might be something we should be concerned about,considering it could very well spread to other states. not that id sign the fucker, but still..

-dirtpoor

See below. It's a violation

See below. It's a violation of the fifth amendment as affirmed under "Leary v. United States." Just relax.

Id have never thought of as

Id have never thought of as good of a word as 'fucking bonkers' for this, so ill stick with that. I understand that this is unconstitutional,fascist and absurd, that however gives me little ease. Many situations with anarchists and other radicals have also been unconstitutional or clearly illegal and that has not helped the people being targeted. I think laws like this go into effect and sit unused until everyone forgets they exist, then pulled out eventually. The AETA only took about 4 years.

Where are the complaints

Where are the complaints that this posting isn't anarchist?
=Mister Grumpy

this fucking posting isn't

this fucking posting isn't fucking anarchist AAAAAAAAARRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

According to a friend of

According to a friend of mine they did the same thing in the 60ies. They apparently forced NAACP to undergo one of these things, among others.

Epic Fifth Amendment fail.

Epic Fifth Amendment fail. Similar examples have been shot down in the past, example "Leary v. United States."

From the case:
a.“If read according to its terms, the Marijuana Tax Act compelled petitioner to expose himself to a "real and appreciable" risk of self-incrimination;
b. [The statute] required him, in the course of obtaining an order form, to identify himself not only as a transferee of marijuana but as a transferee who had not registered and paid the occupational tax;
c. Compliance with the transfer tax provisions would have required petitioner unmistakably to identify himself as a member of [a]…"selective" and "suspect" group, we can only decide that when read according to their terms these provisions created a "real and appreciable" hazard of incrimination."

definitely can't fill out

definitely can't fill out such a paper for risk of self-incrimination

but if you do, you'll save

but if you do, you'll save yourself a $25,000 fine!

...j/k.

The first time this is used will be the last.

Hey everyone, don't worry, I

Hey everyone, don't worry, I hear that this law breaks something in the constitution. I'm so glad that the constitution is here to protect us from blatently illegal government repression. Oh wait...

My captcha is Administration redone

Anarchists should understand

Anarchists should understand the limits of Anarchist critique. Obviously rights are often infringed upon within all governments (which makes us anarchists) but there are rules within a number of governments (such as the Bill of Rights) that restrict governmental power in a variety of ways. In this case, it's not even just an amendment, it also happens to be a Supreme Court case less than 50 years ago that clearly limits the actions of government.

Sure, I hate when stupid ass liberals constantly trump "but the government is breaking the law!" as if it mattered. But here, when there's clear cases in favor of us (unlike cops busting up a rally in violation of the 1st amendment), it's important to understand and be able to defend yourself using even legal means, if that is required.

And here the anarchist

And here the anarchist critique comes in: they can break their own laws BECAUSE they are governments.

The Magna Carta and Bill of

The Magna Carta and Bill of Rights mark the birth of modern liberal ideas within government; where a number of governments can do anything it would please (from fascism to chiefdoms), liberalism is built on the foundation of respect of the "rule of law" even when they're the ones that have to follow the laws. We teach communities through teach-ins, zines, and films about proper procedure when dealing with police for a reason.

Certainly this is not enough. Any rule of law, anything existence of governors and governed, robs humanity of its dignity and development. But the rule of law is important to these assholes, and when we can use that rule to our advantage, rather than it being enacted upon us, we hold measures of self-defense that should not be thrown aside for petty "I'm a better anarchist than you."

"...of controlling,

"...of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States [or] of this State."

... what about "making total destroy of"?

If you're arrested, can you

If you're arrested, can you please use that as your defense? That'd be epic.

make total seizure of.... as

make total seizure of.... as in a fit.

seriously, how the fuck do you seize an entire government? like grab all the agencies and personnel by the shirt and throw 'em all in the fucking incinerator? i'd pay 25 g's for that!

25 g's will buy you a

25 g's will buy you a fucking Prius.

bidding starts at 100 billion.

Unless you are a BIG

Unless you are a BIG corporation, then they pay you 700 billion, twice!

To add to all the legal

To add to all the legal scholarship being vomited into the comment section:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yates_v._United_States

^^^Believe it or not, this whole time we've been allowed to advocate overthrowing the government in an abstract, indefinite, or passive manner. It's only when we approach Congress with pitchforks claiming we want to literally overthrow the state that we've broken the law.

As such they shouldn't be requiring us to register, it's a violation of our fifth amendment rights and Yates v US also says they can't act against us if we're only advocating an action as a good one rather than actively planning to do it (which I suppose is something that requires a bit more evidence).

Wow guys, way to take

Wow guys, way to take yourselves seriously. I laughed out loud when I saw this, and I'm considering filling it out to see if they send me anything back because that would be awesome.

My captcha is way freshmen.

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