Attorney and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz (AP File Photo)
(CNSNews.com) – Attorney and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, who describes himself as a liberal Democrat, says he’s disgusted by a petition on the MoveOn.org website that calls on the Justice Department to arrest House Republican leaders, including John Boehner and Eric Cantor, “for the crime of seditious conspiracy against the United States.”
“I hate Move On because they’re a bunch of radicals — they’re not liberals, they are not tolerant of differences. I am a centralist liberal, and I get along very well with centralist conservatives. What I don’t like are extremists on either side, and Move On is an extremist organization and an irresponsible organization,” Dershowitz told Fox News’s Megyn Kelly Thursday night.
Dershowitz said he’d gladly defend the Republican leaders if they were tried for sedition: “This would really be an easy case to win,” he said. “It’s the same thing that some liberals tried to do to Tom Delay and, of course, his conviction was reversed in the Texas courts. What the Republicans tried to do to Bill Clinton. Let’s punish people politically if you disagree with their politics, but let’s not use the criminal justice system improperly.”
According to the MoveOn.org petition, House Republican leaders engaged in a “seditious conspiracy” by using the threat of a government shutdown and default “in an attempt to extort the United States government into altering or abolishing the Affordable Care Act.”
The petition had more than 35,000 signatures as of Friday morning.
“The idea of extending the criminal law and applying it to differences over politics would destroy this country,” Dershowitz said. “Move On should be ashamed of itself, and the 30,000 people who signed that petition should be embarrassed to join in such an absurd petition.”
Source material can be found at this site.
