LAD #26: Schenck v. USA

Schenck versus the United States took place on March 3, 1919. The trial was over the content of United States mail shipped by the socialist party in the later half of the second decade of the 1900s. It was said that this went against the espionage act of 1917. The chief justice claimed that the defendant was trying to cause insubordination in the US armed forces during the first world war. Schenck was the secretary at the Socialist party and mailed close to 16,000 pamphlets that encouraged draft dodging. The judge ruled against the defendant and said that it was a clear and present danger.