VBS.TV Blog

SOUTH CAROLINIAN SUBVERSIVES: REGISTER

February 09, 2010
by JAMES TENAFLY

If you’re living in South Carolina and you want to overthrow the government, please register with the Secretary of State. A new law in effect, not a proposed initiative, mind you, requires “subversives” in the Palmetto State to file with their state government under the Subversive Activities Registration Act. Quoth the act:

Title 23, Chapter 29 of the South Carolina Code of Laws requires 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, of this State or of any political subdivision thereof by force or violence or other unlawful means, who resides, transacts any business or attempts to influence political action in this State, shall register with the Secretary of State on the forms and at the times prescribed by him.”

What’s worse, the filing fee is a whole five bucks! And the punishment for noncompliance? $25,000 and/or 10 years in prison. It’s hard to tell if this law is technically Orwellian: It’s Draconian enough, sure, but it just seems too stupid to pass the Big Brother sniff test.