Generally, a person may be punished for sedition only when he or she makes statements that create a Clear and Present Danger to rights that the government may lawfully protect (schenck v. united states, 249 U.S. 47, 39 S. Ct. 247, 63 L. Ed. 470 [1919]).
The epidemic reached its zenith in the years 1348 to 1350, though the disease never vanished entirely. It is widely believed that the cause of the Black Death was bubonic plague, an infectious and fatal illness spread by rodents and the fleas infesting them.
1 It is estimated that somewhere between 75 million and 200 million people died of the plague. 2  Some scientists think it was a bacteria called Yersinia pestis that caused the disease. 3  The plague was not called the Black Death until many years later.