America is at war with the new coronavirus. Our people are dying and our economy is on its knees. China bears at least some responsibility. Maybe it bears most. Our press constantly criticizes President Trump. Some blame him, not China, for this crisis. This criticism arguably hurts our morale and our response to the pandemic.
So the question, should those who criticize President Trump and defend China in this current crisis be prosecuted, and imprisoned if found guilty?
Background:
The Constitution of the United States in part defines treason as "adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."
Writing for a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes declared in Schenck v. United States (1919) that “[w]hen a nation is at war, many things that might be said in times of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight, and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right.”
The Sedition Act of 1798 criminalized the "writing, printing, uttering or publishing of any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings about the government of the United States."
The Espionage Act of 1917 criminalized attempting to cause insubordination to the war effort, willfully attempting to cause insurrection and obstructing the recruiting or enlistment of potential volunteers.
The Sedition Act of 1918 prohibited Uttering, printing, writing, or publishing any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language intended to cause contempt, scorn … as regards the form of government of the United States or Constitution, or the flag or the uniform of the Army or Navy … urging any curtailment of the war with intent to hinder its prosecution; advocating, teaching, defending, or acts supporting or favoring the cause of any country at war with the United States, or opposing the cause of the United States.
In 1951, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the conviction of 12 people for Communist Party activity. The Court wrote: “To those who would paralyze our Government in the face of impending threat by encasing it in a semantic straitjacket we must reply that all concepts are relative.”
From
https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment...during-wartime