LAD #30 Schenck vs. U.S.

Summary of the case Schenck vs. U.S., March 1919:

In the case, American socialist Charles Schenck had been distributing thousands of fliers encouraging young men to evade the draft for the Great War, claiming that the draft was violating the Thirteenth Amendment because it enforced "involuntary servitude" and that the war was motivated by "capitalist greed". Schenck was charged with violating a newly erected Espionage Act in that he was trying to incite insubordination in the military and naval forces. 

Schenck then appealed to the Supreme Court on the grounds that the Espionage Act violated his First Amendment rights. However, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a pioneering opinion that stated that an individual's Freedom of Speech was not guaranteed when the speech would cause "clear and present danger", as Schenck's did by creating military insubordination during wartime. The Supreme Court voted unanimously against Schenck. this ruling has since been overturned.