On Treason: A Citizen’s Guide to the Law

UC Davis law professor Larson (The Trials of Allegiance) presents a lucid analysis of the U.S. Constitution’s treason clause and its implications for today’s partisan politics. Despite President Trump’s numerous allegations of treason against congressional Democrats, and vice versa, the constitutional definition of treason is surprisingly narrow, Larson explains, and only applies if the accused traitor is attempting to overthrow the U.S. government. Larson makes good use of historical examples to parse the “controversy, complexity, and difficulty” of prosecuting treason, exploring, for instance, the cases of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis, Revolutionary War turncoat Benedict Arnold, Soviet spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and Jane Fonda, who paid a controversial visit to Hanoi during the Vietnam War. Addressing more contemporary examples, Larson explains why Trump’s public call for Russia to hack the Democratic National Committee’s emails, Edward Snowden’s theft of top-secret NSA documents, and even the hypothetical case of a secretary of state spying for China are not treasonous under the current interpretation of the law. Larson enlivens his case studies with intriguing details and character sketches, and makes legal terminology accessible to lay readers. This well-informed treatise separates partisan rhetoric from prosecutable offense. Agent: Wendy Strothman, Strothman Agency. (Sept.)

Correction: An earlier version of this review misspelled the author's first name.