Court halts release of jailed militia members

DETROIT (AP) -- A federal appeals court has stopped the release of nine jailed Michigan militia members accused of conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati issued an emergency stay Thursday morning.

talk about pissing a judge off, I have never seen someone getting bail get appealed by the Government. I am sure it has happened, maybe once in a blue moon. The feds are going to have a tough row to hoe coming up with a burden of proof to override the District Judge.

-- Sedition is going to be one tough charge to support as it is my current understanding that all the "sedition" laws have been pulled off the books. --

I think the charge will be impossible to prove, but not because there is no law on the books. See 18 USC 2384 - Seditious conspiracy.

-- Attempted use of weapons of mass destruction? Umm, that is questionable as it depends on if they ever actually assembled anything, much less placed it anywhere with the intent of actually setting it off. --

The indictment lacks allegation of specifics that support this one, but does say that the group had IED / pipe bomb plans and components. The statute includes "conspiracy" as an offense. See 18 USC 2332a(a)(2)

A person who, without lawful authority, uses, threatens, or attempts or conspires to use, a weapon of mass destruction ...

-- Are the government prosecutors desperate to make this work despite the general lack of hard evidence indicating the â€œseditionâ€ existed? Oh hell yea. --

I was shocked that the District Court judge ordered a conditional release. The government usually works in harmony on this sort of case.

The arrest of the Hutarees was meant to be the ‘two’ and a ‘one-two’ punch, with the alleged spitting on and using the n-word to black congressmen by Tea Party demonstrators the ‘one’. That’s why the Feds acted before they had the goods. The timing was right for their purposes.

With the mentality of some LEO these days a weapon of mass destruction could consist of a double order of tacos and a pint of milk qualifying as the components and the resulting “gas release” indoors would count as the attempt.

Or shut them down as an environmental menace.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.