Friday, Mar. 25, 2022
Did the Supreme Court find the Union guilty of ‘constitutional treason’ in 1867?
A recent social media post falsely claims that no Confederate leader was tried for treason in the 1800s because it was the Union that was guilty of treason, declared so by the U.S. Supreme Court.
No such Supreme Court decision exists, said Deborah Pearlstein, a professor of law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University:
"Treason is an offense that can be charged by the government against an individual or individuals. As a matter of law, it makes no sense to imagine a government of any kind guilty of 'treason.'"
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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