Abrams v. United States

Abrams v. United States
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 21–22, 1919 Decided November 10, 1919
Full case name	Jacob Abrams, et al. v. United States
Citations	250 U.S. 616 (more) 40 S. Ct. 17; 63 L. Ed. 1173; 1919 U.S. LEXIS 1784
Case history
Prior	Defendants convicted, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
Subsequent	None
Holding
Defendants' criticism of American involvement in World War I was not protected by the First Amendment because they advocated a strike in munitions production and the violent overthrow of the government.
Court membership
Chief Justice Edward D. White Associate Justices Joseph McKenna · Oliver W. Holmes Jr. William R. Day · Willis Van Devanter Mahlon Pitney · James C. McReynolds Louis Brandeis · John H. Clarke
Case opinions
Majority	Clarke, joined by White, McKenna, Day, Van Devanter, Pitney, McReynolds
Dissent	Holmes, joined by Brandeis
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I; 50 U.S.C. § 33 (1917)
Overruled by
Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969) (in part)

Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States upholding the criminal arrests of several defendants under the Sedition Act of 1918, which was an amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917. The law made it a criminal offense to criticize the production of war materiel with intent to hinder the progress of American military efforts.^[1]

The defendants had been arrested in 1919 for printing and distributing anti-war leaflets in New York City. After their conviction under the Sedition Act, they appealed on free speech grounds. The Supreme Court upheld the convictions under the clear and present danger standard, which allowed the suppression of certain types of speech in the public interest.^[2]

The ruling is best known for its dissent by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, which led to a gradual liberalization of the Supreme Court's First Amendment jurisprudence.^[3][4] The clear and present danger standard, used in this ruling to uphold the criminal convictions, fell out of favor and was largely overturned by the Supreme Court in 1969.^[5]