Schenck v. United States 1919

• Author: Daniel Brannen, Richard Hanes, Elizabeth Shaw
• Pages: 164-169

Contenidos

• The Socialist party opposes the draft.
• Charles T. Schenck
• "Clear and Present Danger".
• Suggestions for further reading.

Page 164

Appellant: Charles T. Schenck

Appellee: United States

Appellant's Claim: That his speech was protected by the First Amendment.

Chief Lawyers for Appellant: Henry J. Gibbons, Henry John Nelson

Chief Lawyers for Appellee: John Lord O'Brian

Justices for the Court: Louis D. Brandeis, John Hessin Clarke, William Rufus Day, Oliver Wendell Holmes (writing for the Court), Charles Evans Hughes, Joseph McKenna, James Clark McReynolds, Willis Van Devanter, Edward Douglass White

Justices Dissenting: None

Date of Decision: March 3, 1919

Decision: Schenck's speech was not protected by the First Amendment and his conviction under the Espionage Act was upheld

Significance: This case marked the first time the Supreme Court ruled directly on the extent to which the U.S. government may limit speech. The opinion written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes produced two of that famous justice's most memorable and most often quoted statements on the law.

Page 165

Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes first used the term "clear and present danger." Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The Socialist party opposes the draft

On June 15, 1917, just after the United States entered World War I (1914–18), Congress passed the Espionage Act. This made it a federal crime to hinder the nation's war effort. The law was passed shortly after the Conscription Act that was passed on May 18, 1917. The Conscription Act enabled the government to draft men for military service.

At this time a political organization existed in America called the Socialist party. It pushed for government ownership of factories, railroads, iron mines, and such. At a meeting at the party's headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1917, its leaders decided to print 15,000 leaflets. The leaflets were to go to men who had been drafted. The pamphlets included words from the first part of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which reads:

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

The leaflets went on to state that a draftee was like a criminal convict. They felt that drafting men, called conscription, was an unfair use of the government's authority. The leaflets further read, "Do not submit to intimidation," and urged readers to petition the government to repeal, or

Page 166

cancel, the Conscription Act. The...