LAD# 26: Schenck vs. US

On March 3rd 1919, the Chief Justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes delivered a speech of the Supreme Court charging them with a conspiracy they started which violated the Espionage Act. The Supreme Court obstructed the recruitment and enlistment of those serving in WWI and these men had illegally used federal pail to issue the pamphlets, and those accused of having created the pamphlets tried to manipulate men not to enlist. The Secretary of the Socialist Party, Schenk, was in charge of the headquarters of the Party and thus responsible for administering revolutionary materials and a socialist document which went over the 13th Amendment and said the Conscription Act violated the Amendment. The act was one of despotism, which only “wronged humanity.” It asked people to show their rights and their dislike of the draft. The pamphlet stated that the Conscription Act was being used as a part of the government conspiracy and the accused said the pamphlet was went with their freedom of speech, but the court ruled it illegality because of its harmfulness to the US people.