In listening to the suggestions by the Tea Partiers and Republicans that there should be a violent overthrow of the government, I thought There oughta be a law..

Well, there is something called the Smith Act. I found this at answers.com.

The Smith Act was a product of America’s prewar anxieties. Proposed by Representative Howard W. Smith of Virginia, the measure was one of several antisubversive bills introduced in Congress during 1939. A modified version was adopted by both houses on 22 June 1940, as Title I of the Alien Registration Act.

Section I provided a fine of up to ten thousand dollars and ten years in prison for attempting to undermine the morale of the armed forces. Sections II and III provided the same penalties for anyone who “advocates, abets, advises, or teaches” the violent overthrow of the government; publishes or distributes printed matter that advocates the violent overthrow; organizes any society with such a purpose; knowingly joins such a society; or conspires to do any of the above.

The Smith Act was initially invoked in 1941 against eighteen members of the Socialist Workers party in Minnesota but was rarely used during World War II. After the war, it became a primary weapon in the government’s war on domestic communists. In 1948 the Justice Department brought charges against twelve members of the Communist party’s Central Committee, and after the Supreme Court upheld those convictions and affirmed the validity of the act in Dennis v. United States (1951), indictments were secured against state party leaders throughout the country. In all, 141 persons were indicted for violating the Smith Act, but, because of the more liberal standards applied by the Court in Yates v. United States (1957) and Scales v. United States (1961), only twenty-nine of those indicted served jail terms.