On the 31 documents listed in the indictment that Motherfucker stole (Part 2)

[moniss]

14. I am not sure

about claims that we are "not at war" and so don't have a statutory "enemy". Although Congress didn't declare war in Korea we never ended hostilities with an official peace treaty. I am not sure we need a formal declaration by Congress in order to have a statutory enemy. I also don't know if the treason statute requires a declared war because the language quoted says "or adheres to their enemies" so it talks about two scenarios that are not necessarily tied together because of the use of the word "or" rather than "and".

Also the statute in question, and as quoted, is specifically talking about someone owing allegiance being the one levying war etc. So there may well be legal matters to chew on here. As quoted I don't see a requirement for a declared war or that the war against the US must involve anybody other than the person owing allegiance to the US.

There may be case law clarifying all of this but absent that it would appear that the statute was written broadly enough to cover acts that were unknown or unthinkable at the time of passage and purposely gave latitude in defining what constitutes "adheres to their enemies". Because the penalties specified have a broad range from 5 years/10K to death it would indicate that the statute contemplated a wide interpretation of treason for a wide variety of acts.