The
Alien Registration Act or
Smith Act of 1940 is a United States federal statute that makes it a criminal offense for anyone to
It also required all non-
citizenCitizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, or national community.Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
adult residents to register with the government; within four months, 4,741,971 aliens had registered under the Act's provisions.
The Act is best known for its use against political organizations and figures, mostly on the
leftLeft-right politics or the left-right political spectrum is a common way of classifying political positions, political ideologies, or political parties along a one-dimensional political spectrum. The perspective of Left vs. Right is a broad, dialectical interpretation of complex questions...
. Prosecutions continued until a series of United States Supreme Court decisions in 1957 threw out numerous convictions under the Smith Act as
unconstitutionalConstitutionality is the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or guidelines set forth in the applicable constitution. When one of these directly violates the constitution it is unconstitutional...
. The statute remains on the books, however.
The Act was proposed by Congressman
Howard W. SmithHoward Worth Smith , Democratic U.S. Congressman from Virginia, was a leader of the Conservative Coalition and an avid segregationist.-Early life and education:...
of
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The geography and climate of the state are shaped by the Blue...
, a Democrat and a leader of the "anti-labor" bloc of Congressmen. It was signed into law by
PresidentThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
.
Smith Act trials
The first trial, in 1941, focused on Trotskyites, the second trial in 1944 prosecuted alleged fascists and, beginning in 1949, leaders and members of the
Communist Party USAThe Communist Party of the United States of America is a Marxist-Leninist political party in the United States.During the first half of the 20th century it was the largest and most widely influential communist party in the country, and played a prominent role in the U.S...
were targeted.
1941: Minneapolis sedition trial - Communism on Trial
The first Smith Act Trial occurred in 1941 with the prosecution in Minneapolis of leaders of the communist
Socialist Workers PartyThe Socialist Workers Party is a communist political party in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba. The SWP publishes The Militant, a weekly newspaper that dates back to 1928, and maintains Pathfinder Press, which...
(SWP) in Minneapolis including
James P. CannonJames Patrick "Jim" Cannon was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.Born on February 11, 1890 in Rosedale, Kansas, he joined the Socialist Party of America in 1908 and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911...
,
Carl SkoglundCarl Skoglund was a Swedish-American socialist, affectionately called Skogie by all his American friends and comrades. He was born in Dalsland and went to the US in 1911. After spending some time in the I.W.W...
,
Farrell DobbsFarrell Dobbs was an American Trotskyist and trade unionist.He was born in Queen City, Missouri where his father was a worker in a coal mine. They moved to Minneapolis, and he graduated from North High School in 1925. In 1926, he left for North Dakota to find work, but returned the following fall...
,
Grace CarlsonGrace Holmes Carlson was an American communist politician. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Carlson was raised in local Catholic schools. As a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party she was imprisoned in 1941 under the Smith Act together with many other SWP leaders for opposing the US...
,
Harry DeBoerHarry DeBoer was an American labor militant and Trotskyist. He was born in Crookston, Minnesota, and worked in the Minneapolis coal yards. DeBoer became one of the leaders of the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934a particularly well-organized action that resulted in the shutting down of most...
, Max Geldman,
Albert GoldmanAlbert Goldman was an American Trotskyist and lawyer to the labor movement.Born Albert Verblen in Chicago, he studied at Medhill High School and then the University of Cincinnati. He also studied to be a rabbi at the Hebrew Union College...
(who also acted as the defendants' lawyer during the trial), twelve other leaders of the Trotskyist SWP, and union activists involved with Local 544 of the Teamsters union in Minneapolis where the SWP had had a degree of influence since the
Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934The Minneapolis General Strike of 1934 grew out of a strike by Teamsters against most of the trucking companies operating in Minneapolis, a major distribution center for the Upper Midwest. The strike began on May 16, 1934 in the Market District and ensuing violence lasted periodically throughout...
. The SWP had advocated
strikeStrike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines...
s and the continuation of
labor unionA trade union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas, such as working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labor contracts with employers...
militancy during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
under its
Proletarian Military PolicyThe Proletarian Military Policy was a policy adopted by the Fourth International in response to World War II. It was an attempt to apply transitional demands such as trade union control of military training and the election of officers to transform what it characterised as an imperialist war into...
and had some influence in Minneapolis due to its involvement with the Teamsters Union. The US Communist Party-- which, during the period in which the
Molotov-Ribbentrop PactThe Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, colloquially named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and signed in...
was in force, had opposed American involvement in the war--had become an advocate of a no-strike pledge since the beginning of
Nazi invasion of the USSROperation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km front...
. An SWP member edited
the Northwest Organizer, which was the weekly newspaper of the Minneapolis Teamsters, and the local remained a militant communist outpost in what was becoming an increasingly conservative national union under IBT leader
Daniel J. Tobin Daniel Joseph Tobin was an American labor leader and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1907 to 1952. From 1917 to 1928, he was secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Labor...
.
On June 27 1941, the SWP's offices in Minneapolis and St. Paul were raided by the
Federal Bureau of InvestigationThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency. The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) which seized large quantities of communist literature. Several weeks later, twenty-eight people, either members of the SWP or Local 544 (or both) were indicted by a federal
grand juryIn the common law, a grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether there is enough evidence for a trial. Grand juries carry out this duty by examining evidence presented to them by a prosecutor and issuing indictments, or by investigating alleged crimes and issuing presentments...
with violation of the 1861
Sedition ActSedition Act may refer to:*Alien and Sedition Acts, including the Sedition Act of 1798, laws passed by the United States Congress*Sedition Act 1661, an English statute that largely relates to treason...
, which had never before been used, and the 1940 Smith Act. The defendants were accused of plotting to overthrow the United States government. The trial began in Federal District Court in Minneapolis on October 27 1941 with evidence consisting mostly of public statements made by the SWP and its leaders as well as the
Communist Manifesto and writings by
Vladimir LeninVladimir Ilyich Lenin , born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov , was the Bolshevik Leader of the 1917 October Revolution, and the first Head of State of the Soviet Union; in the course of his political career, he used the pseudonyms Lenin, V. I. Lenin, Nikolai Lenin, and N. Lenin...
and
Leon TrotskyLeon Trotsky , born Leyba Davidov Bronstein , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. He was one of the leaders of the Russian October Revolution, second only to Lenin...
. The evidence regarding insubordination of the armed forces consisted of oral testimony by two government witnesses to the effect that one or two defendants had told them that soldiers should be induced to "kick" (complain) about food and living conditions.
Five of the defendants were acquitted on both counts by direction of the judge due to lack of evidence at the conclusion of the prosecution's case. After 56 hours of deliberation, the jury found all of the twenty-three remaining defendants not guilty of count one of the
indictmentIn the common law legal system, an indictment is a formal accusation that a person has committed a criminal offence. In those jurisdictions which retain the concept of a felony, the serious criminal offence would be a felony; those jurisdictions which have abolished the concept of a felony often...
in which the state charged the accused with violating the 1861 statute by conspiring to overthrow the government by force. The government had attempted to use the Statute, which had originally been aimed against
Southern secessionistsThe Confederate States of America was a separatist political entity existing between 1861 to 1865, established by eleven southern slave states of the United States of America, each of which had previously declared their secession from the United States...
, as a means of criminalizing the avowal of any revolutionary doctrines. The jury found eighteen of the defendants guilty of count two of the indictment, which charged violation of the Smith Act specifically distributing written material designed to cause insubordination in the armed forces and charged that they had acted to "advocate, abet, advise and teach the duty, necessity, desirability and propriety of overthrowing the government by force and violence”.
On December 8 1941, sentences were handed down with twelve defendants receiving 16-month terms and the remaining eleven being given 12 month terms. After failed appeals and the refusal of the United States Supreme Court to review the case, the convicted defendants began to serve their sentences on December 31 1943. The last prisoners were released in February 1945.
The Communist Party supported the trial and conviction of Trotskyists under the Smith Act; however, its leaders were to face similar scrutiny for treasonable acts under the Act following the war. Roosevelt's attorney general,
Francis BiddleFrancis Beverley Biddle was an American lawyer and judge who was Attorney General of the United States during World War II and who served as the primary American judge during the postwar Nuremberg trials....
, later regretted having authorized the prosecution.
1944: Great Sedition Trial
The so-called Great Sedition Trial of 1944 followed from a series of indictments issued in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
against a group of some 30 prominent individuals accused of
seditionSedition is a term of law which refers to overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority as tending toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority...
and various related violations of the Smith Act. The defendants were alleged to be part of an international
NaziNazism, known officially in German as National Socialism , is the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party or National Socialist German Workers’ Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.Nazism is often considered...
conspiracyIn a political sense, conspiracy refers to a group of persons united in the goal of usurping or overthrowing an established political power. Typically, the final goal is to gain power through a revolutionary coup d'état or through assassination....
, connected with the activities of the
Mothers' MovementMothers' Movement was an American confederation of anti-World War II, pro-Nazi, anti-Communist, anti-Roosevelt and anti-Semitic groups. Mothers' Movement consisted of: National Legion of Mothers of America formed by Father Charles Coughlin in 1939; National Blue Star Mothers; Crusading Mothers of...
. It is arguable that the trial was overtly political in nature; it was advocated by
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
and is considered by some critics as tantamount to a
show trialThe term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial. The term was first recorded in the 1930s. There is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant and that the actual trial has as its only goal to present the...
. The trial arose out of the strongly isolationist and/or allegedly pro-fascist stance of the heterogeneous group of defendants at the height of US involvement in World War II.
The trial began April 17, 1944, after a number of attempts by Federal authorities to frame charges robust enough to survive grand jury hearings, but was characterised by an inability on the part of prosecutors to prove specific intent to overthrow the government. Rather, it appears to have consisted of months of the prosecutor, O. John Rogge, reading the writings of the defendants to an increasingly weary jury. A mistrial was declared on November 29, 1944, some time after the death of the trial judge, ex-congressman
Edward C. EicherEdward C. Eicher was a three-term congressman, federal securities regulator, and federal district court judge during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was considered a consummate "New Deal" liberal....
.
In part because of the abject failure of the trial, which ended "in tragedy and farce"
http://library.csun.edu/spcoll/exhibitions/Backyard/right12.htm, it is notable as one of a number in the US in which the dictates of freedom—especially of certain interpretations of
freedom of speechFreedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship or limitation. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to indicate not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
—have been set against concepts of
national securityNational security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the nation-state through the use of economic, military and political power and the exercise of diplomacy.Measures taken to ensure national security include:...
. The most obvious comparison, from the immediate post-war era, was that of the congressional hearings arising out of
Joseph McCarthyJoseph Raymond McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
's
anti-communistAnti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism, especially Marxism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the growing popularity of the communist movement, and took on many forms during the 20th century....
allegations.
Among the defendants in the 1944 trial were:
George Sylvester ViereckGeorge Sylvester Viereck was a German-American poet, writer, and propagandist.-Biography:...
,
Lawrence DennisLawrence Dennis was an American diplomat, consultant and author. He advocated fascism in America after the Great Depression, arguing that capitalism was doomed. -Life:...
,
Elizabeth DillingElizabeth Dilling Stokes was an American anti-communist and anti-war activist and writer in the 1930s and 1940s, who stood trial for Sedition in what is now called the Great Sedition Trial of 1944...
,
William Dudley PelleyWilliam Dudley Pelley was an American extremist and spiritualist who founded the Silver Legion in 1933, and ran for President in 1936 for the Christian party.-Family:...
,
Joe McWilliamsJoseph Elsberry "Joe" McWilliams was an American inventor, industrial engineer, and proponent of American fascism, who spent his later years as a consultant to American industry. Born of mixed Irish/German and Native American descent > McWilliams had been long associated with Trotskyism and hard...
,
Robert Edward EdmondsonRobert Edward Edmondson was an anti-Jewish pamphleteer and a defendant in the Great Sedition Trial of 1944. He was an organizer of the Pan-Aryan Conference. Edmondson had roots that went back to the colonial days of Virginia and Maryland and was primarily of Scottish descent...
, Gerald Winrod, William Griffin, and even in absentia notorious anti-semitic publisher and propagandist
Ulrich Fleischhauerthumb|Ulrich Fleischhauer Ulrich Fleischhauer was a leading antisemitic publisher of books and news articles reporting on an alleged Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory and supposed "nefarious plots" by clandestine Jewish interests to dominate the world.His career was at first grounded in the Imperial...
and his
Welt-Dienst/World Service.
Communist Party trials
Members of the
Communist Party USAThe Communist Party of the United States of America is a Marxist-Leninist political party in the United States.During the first half of the 20th century it was the largest and most widely influential communist party in the country, and played a prominent role in the U.S...
began facing prosecution beginning in 1949 under the law. Over 140 leaders of the CPUSA, including party leader
Eugene DennisEugene Dennis was a long-time leader of the Communist Party USA and union organizer. He was born Francis Xavier Waldron in Seattle but adopted the pseudonym of Eugene Dennis in the 1930s.-Biography:...
, would stand trial during the early days of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
. Prosecutions continued until a string of decisions by the United States Supreme Court, which counted among its membership at the time FDR nominees Justices
Felix FrankfurterFelix Frankfurter was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.-Early life:Frankfurter was born on November 15, 1882 in Vienna, Austria, third of six children of Leopold and Emma Frankfurter. His forebears had been rabbis for generations...
,
Hugo BlackHugo LaFayette Black was an American politician and jurist. A member of the Democratic Party, Black represented the state of Alabama in the United States Senate from 1927 to 1937, and served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1937 to 1971. Black was nominated to...
, and
William O. DouglasWilliam Orville Douglas was a United States Supreme Court Associate Justice. With a term lasting 36 years and 209 days, he is the longest-serving justice in the history of the Supreme Court...
, threw out numerous convictions under the Smith Act as
unconstitutionalConstitutionality is the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or guidelines set forth in the applicable constitution. When one of these directly violates the constitution it is unconstitutional...
.
Eleven leaders of the Communist Party were charged under the Smith Act in 1949. The accusation was that "they conspired... to organize as the Communist Party and willfully to advocate and teach the principles of Marxism-Leninism," which was equated with meaning "overthrowing and destroying the government of the United States by force and violence" at some unspecified future time. They were also accused of conspiring to "publish and circulate... books, articles, magazines, and newspapers advocating the principles of Marxism-Leninism." The
Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels, Lenin's
State and Revolution, and Stalin's
Foundation of Leninism were introduced as evidence for the prosecution.
The trial at the
Foley Square CourthouseThe Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse is a Classical Revival courthouse at Foley Square in the Civic Center neighborhood of lower Manhattan in New York City. The building is located at 40 Centre Street....
in
ManhattanManhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.New York County, which has the same boundaries as the Borough of Manhattan , is the most densely populated county in the United States, with a 2008 population of 1,634,795...
took nine months to conduct. Among the eleven charged were
Gil GreenGil Green was a prominent figure in the Communist Party of the United States of America until 1991. He was national secretary of the Young Communist League in the 1930's , and leader of the party in the state of New York from 1941-1945 and again from 1966-1968, Green was also briefly headed...
, a long-time Party leader; Eugene Dennis and
Henry WinstonHenry M. Winston was an African American political leader and Marxist civil rights activist.Winston, committed to equal rights and communism, was an advocate of civil rights for African Americans decades before the idea of racial equality emerged as a mainstream current of American political...
, leaders of the national organization;
John GatesJohn "Johnny" Gates, born Solomon Regenstreif was a prominent American Communist journalist, best remembered as one of the individuals spearheading a failed attempt at liberalization of the Communist Party USA in 1957.-Early years:...
, editor of the Daily Worker; and
Gus HallGus Hall was a leader of the Communist Party USA and its four-time U.S. presidential candidate. As a labor leader, Hall was closely associated with the so-called "Little Steel" Strike of 1937, an effort to unionize the nation's smaller, regional steel manufacturers.-Background:Hall was born Arvo...
, then leader of the Party in Ohio. Ten defendants were given sentences of five years and fined $10,000; an eleventh defendant, armed forces veteran
Robert G. ThompsonRobert George Thompson was an American Communist and hero of the World War II Pacific Theater who was imprisoned by the United States government during the 1950s Red Scare on account of his commitment to communist beliefs.Born on June 21, 1915 in Grants Pass, Oregon, Thompson fought on the side of...
a distinguished hero of the Second World Warwas sentenced to three years as an act of gratitude. All of the defense attorneys (including future Congressman
George W. CrockettGeorge William Crockett Jr. was an African American attorney, jurist, and politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. He also served as a national vice-president of the National Lawyers Guild and co-founded what is believed to be the first racially-integrated law firm in the United States...
) were cited for
contempt of courtContempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
and given prison sentences.
The convicted Communists appealed the verdicts, but the Supreme Court upheld their convictions in 1951 by a vote of six to two with Justices Hugo Black and William O. Douglas dissenting. Black wrote that the government's indictment was "a virulent form of prior censorship of speech and press" and a violation of the
First AmendmentThe First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the Congress from making laws "respecting an establishment of religion", prohibiting the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech and infringing on the freedom of the...
.
In 1951, twenty-three other leaders of the party were indicted, including
Elizabeth Gurley FlynnElizabeth Gurley Flynn was a labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World . Flynn was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union and a visible proponent of women's rights, birth control, and women's suffrage...
a founding member of the
American Civil Liberties UnionThe American Civil Liberties Union consists of two separate non-profit organizations: the ACLU Foundation, a 501 organization which focuses on litigation and communication efforts, and the American Civil Liberties Union, a 501 organization which focuses on legislative lobbying...
. By 1957, over 140 leaders and members of the Communist Party had been charged. The indictments and trials ended in 1957 as the result of a series of Supreme Court decisions.
Yates v. United StatesYates v. United States, 354 U.S. 298 , was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States involving free speech and congressional power...
ruled
unconstitutionalConstitutionality is the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or guidelines set forth in the applicable constitution. When one of these directly violates the constitution it is unconstitutional...
the conviction of numerous party leaders in a ruling that distinguished between advocacy of an idea for incitement and the teaching of an idea as a concept. The Court ruled by a margin of six to one in
Watkins v. United StatesWatkins v. United States, 354 U.S. 178 , was brought forward after John Watkins was convicted under , for failing to answer questions while posed as a witness relating to people he may have known to be communist...
that defendants could use the First Amendment as a defense against "abuses of the legislative process."
While prosecutions under the Smith Act ceased, the statute remains on the books.
On June 5, 1961, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld by 5-4 the conviction of Junius Scales under the "membership clause" of the Smith Act. Scales, who was indicted in North Carolina in 1954, began serving a six-year sentence October 2, 1961, following the June Supreme Court decision. Ironically, Scales had broken with the U.S. Communist Party in 1956.
See also
- Alien and Sedition Acts
The Alien and Sedition Acts were four bills passed in 1798 by the Federalists in the 5th United States Congress, who were waging an undeclared naval war with France, later known as the Quasi-War. They were signed into law by President John Adams...
- Cold war
The Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
- Hatch Act of 1939
The Hatch Act of 1939 is a United States federal law whose main provision is to prohibit federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity...
- McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the politically motivated practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence...
- Palmer Raids
The Palmer Raids were a series of controversial raids by the United States Department of Justice and Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1919 to 1921 on suspected radical leftist citizens and immigrants in the United States, the legality of which is now in question...
- First Red Scare
In American history, the First Red Scare took place in the period 1917–1920, and was marked by a widespread fear of anarchism, as well as the effects of radical political agitation in American society. Fueled by anarchist bombings and spurred on by Attorney General A...
- Second Red Scare
- Robert Klonsky
Robert Klonsky was a member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, which fought on the side of the Spanish Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, a prelude to World War II.-Biography:...
- Communist registration act
Communist registration acts were laws proposed and often enacted by the United States Congress and many American state legislatures during the Second Red Scare. These laws required members, sympathizers, and affiliated organizations of the Communist Party of the United States to register with the...
s
- Gitlow v. New York
Gitlow v. New York, , was a historically important case argued before the United States Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution had extended the reach of certain provisions of the First Amendment—specifically the provisions protecting freedom of...
, Supreme Court ruling that advocating violent overthrow of the U.S. could be prohibited by state law
External links