Today in Supreme Court History: May 16, 1918

5/16/1918: The Sedition Act of 1918 is enacted. The Supreme Court upheld prosecutions brought under this law in Schenck, Debs, and Abrams.

Comments

[Speaking for normal people]

Stromberg illustrates for me the fantasy of saying flags or nude dancing or filthy pornographic 'art' is actually a Free Speech problem . When we were kids and making noise that the sleeping baby might hear my Mom said "quiet!" and it had nothing to do with free speech. Speech in that case was like any sensory excess that would wake the baby. Nowadays we look for an awake baby and label whatever was present at the awakening as "speech'

[JoeFromtheBronx]

We remember the dissent in Abrams v. U.S. as a great moment in the history of free speech. Jacob Abrams et. al. were Russian immigrants. They were not American citizens.

We still honor their right of free speech.