Advocacy or Ideas

Fourteen regional leaders of a political party were charged with conspiring to teach the need to overthrow the government by force, and to organize the party as a vehicle for that teaching. The government relied on party classes, writings and speeches. The defendants said they taught a political doctrine, not a plan for action. The judge told the jury that advocating violent overthrow with intent was enough to convict. The law here asks whether the accused urged people to act, or only taught an idea.