The meaning of sedition in U.S. law is organized action to use force against the government or to push others into violently resisting its authority. Federal law splits it into two offenses: seditious conspiracy, which punishes an agreement among two or more people to use force against the United States, and advocacy of violent overthrow under the Smith Act. Both carry up to 20 years in federal prison. Sedition sits next to, but is distinct from, treason and insurrection, and the Supreme Court has sharply narrowed how far it can reach into speech.
Seditious Conspiracy Under 18 U.S.C. § 2384
The main federal sedition statute is 18 U.S.C. § 2384. It makes it a crime for two or more people to agree to use force against the United States government. The statute lists the agreed-upon objectives it covers: forcibly overthrowing the government, waging war against the United States, blocking the enforcement of federal law through force, or seizing federal property.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2384 – Seditious Conspiracy
Prosecutors don’t have to show the plan worked, or even came close. They have to prove a real agreement to use physical force toward one of those ends, plus an overt act taken to further the conspiracy. Talk alone isn’t enough. Stockpiling weapons, operational planning, or coordinating an attack is the kind of concrete step courts look for.
The force element is what separates sedition from ordinary political opposition. Complaining about a law, organizing a protest, or publicly calling the government illegitimate doesn’t come near this statute. The agreement has to be about actual physical resistance to federal authority.
The Smith Act: Advocating the Overthrow of Government
A separate statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2385, known informally as the Smith Act, targets the promotion of violent revolution itself. It makes it a crime to knowingly advocate the forcible overthrow of any U.S. government, whether federal, state, or local.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 2385 – Advocating Overthrow of Government It also covers distributing written materials promoting violent overthrow and organizing groups devoted to that purpose.
The statute includes a membership clause making it a crime to join or affiliate with such an organization if you know the group’s purpose.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 2385 – Advocating Overthrow of Government On paper that reach is enormous. In practice, the Supreme Court has required active membership plus a specific personal intent to help bring about the violent overthrow, so passive or nominal membership isn’t enough.3Justia. Scales v. United States, 367 US 203 (1961)
A Smith Act conviction carries one consequence the sedition conspiracy statute doesn’t: a five-year ban on any federal employment, running from the date of conviction and covering every department and agency.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 2385 – Advocating Overthrow of Government
Why Most “Seditious” Speech Is Still Legal
You can say extreme things about the government and remain within the First Amendment. The controlling rule comes from Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), which held that speech advocating illegal conduct can only be criminalized when it is both directed at inciting imminent lawless action and likely to produce that action.4Justia. Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 US 444 (1969) The word “imminent” is doing most of the work.
Under that standard, prosecutors must prove the speaker intended to cause imminent illegal action, that the illegal action was likely to actually occur, and that the threat was immediate rather than hypothetical. If any element is missing, the speech stays protected. Posting online that the government deserves to be overthrown is almost certainly protected. Standing in front of an armed group and giving the order to attack a federal building right now is almost certainly not. Most real situations fall somewhere in between, which is why sedition charges are rare and prosecutors pick them carefully.
Sedition vs. Treason vs. Insurrection
These three crimes all involve opposition to the government, but they have different elements and penalties, and people routinely mix them up.
Treason is the most serious and the hardest to prove. The Constitution itself defines it narrowly: levying war against the United States or giving aid and comfort to its enemies.5Library of Congress. Article III Section 3, US Constitution It’s the only crime defined in the Constitution, and conviction requires either the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act or a confession in open court. The penalty ranges from five years in prison to death.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2381 – Treason Treason typically involves wartime conduct or collaboration with a foreign enemy, which distinguishes it from the domestic focus of sedition.
Insurrection, under 18 U.S.C. § 2383, covers anyone who participates in, incites, or assists a rebellion against the authority of the United States.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2383 – Rebellion or Insurrection The maximum prison sentence is ten years. But insurrection carries a consequence sedition doesn’t: anyone convicted is permanently barred from holding any federal office.
Sedition, by contrast, is about the agreement to use force (under § 2384) or the advocacy of overthrow (under § 2385). The practical line between seditious conspiracy and insurrection often comes down to timing. Sedition targets the planning phase; insurrection targets the uprising itself. Prosecutors can charge both when the evidence supports it.
Penalties for Sedition
Seditious conspiracy under § 2384 carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2384 – Seditious Conspiracy The statute doesn’t specify a dollar amount for fines. It says defendants “shall be fined under this title,” which triggers 18 U.S.C. § 3571. That provision caps fines for individual felony defendants at $250,000.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 3571 – Sentence of Fine If the offense caused financial losses or the defendant profited from it, the court can impose a fine of up to twice the gain or loss instead, whichever is greater.
Smith Act violations under § 2385 carry the same 20-year maximum and the same fine structure, plus the five-year federal employment ban.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 2385 – Advocating Overthrow of Government
A 20-year maximum makes both offenses Class C felonies under federal sentencing law.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 3559 – Sentencing Classification of Offenses That classification determines the supervised release term after prison. For Class C felonies, federal law authorizes up to three years of supervised release.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3583 – Inclusion of a Term of Supervised Release After Imprisonment Supervised release functions like a federal version of parole: the defendant is out of prison but must comply with court-imposed conditions, and violations can send them back.
How Often Sedition Is Actually Charged
Seditious conspiracy charges are rare. The statute is hard to prove and politically heavy, so prosecutors reserve it for the most serious cases, and some of those still fail. In 1988, an all-white Arkansas jury acquitted ten white nationalist defendants, including members of the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations, of seditious conspiracy charges tied to an alleged plot to establish a white separatist nation. In 2010, charges against the Hutaree Militia in Michigan were dismissed after the judge found the group’s plans lacked the required connection to using force against the federal government.
Successful prosecutions have included the 1954 cases against Puerto Rican Nationalist Party members following a shooting inside the U.S. Capitol, and the 1995 trial of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine co-defendants over a plot to carry out urban terrorism in New York City. Most recently, federal juries convicted leaders of the Oath Keepers (including founder Stewart Rhodes) and the Proud Boys (including former chairman Enrique Tarrio) of seditious conspiracy for their roles in organizing efforts to prevent the transfer of presidential power on January 6, 2021. In 2025, the Department of Justice moved to have those convictions vacated.