GED Social Studies Practice Test 8 — Flashcards

Use the following information for Questions below.    

When America entered the war in 1917, Congress passed a law called the Espionage Act, which said that during wartime it was illegal to obstruct the draft (forcing civilians to join the armed forces). Charles Schenck was against the war, so he mailed thousands of pamphlets to men who had been drafted, telling them that the government had no right to send American citizens to other countries to kill people. The government accused Schenck of violating the Espionage Act and brought Schenck to trial. The case was decided by the Supreme Court, in 1919, in favor of the United States.    

Justice Holmes admitted that “in many places and in ordinary times,” Schenck would have had a right to say everything that he said in his pamphlets. However, Holmes said, how far a person’s freedom of speech extends depends on the circumstances. “The question in every case,” he said, “is whether the words are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent… . The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.”