Before the inception of the Bill of Rights, the post-revolutionary leaders of the United States were debating a suitable re

There are a large number of landmark decisions by the judiciary in general and the Supreme Court in particular that have caused the rights championed by the First Amendment to evolve. For example, during World War I, Charles T. Schnenck, the secretary of the American Socialist Party passed out leaflet encouraging young men to resist the draft. He was arrested for impeding the war effort. Naturally, Schnenck attempted to use the free speech rights granted by the First Amendment as his defense against the charges. However, Schnenck’s conviction was upheld in 1919 in the case of Schnenck v. United States. Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in the majority opinion ruled that the government can, in fact, restrict free speech if it provokes a clear and present danger of substantive evils (Edwards 104). This means that if such free speech causes a real threat to the well being of the country, the First Amendment does not legally protect such speech.

Shortly after the Constitution’s inception in 1789, Freedom of Speech was most commonly meant to be political discourse and commentary because the British had attempted to deprive the early Americans of this right when they controlled the former colonies. As Americans became more secure in their freedom the extent of Freedom of Speech became more widely debated and is still debated to this day in many public forums as well as in the courts of the United States.

However, this would not be the last time the First Amendment would be used as a defense for actions and speech that could be deemed dangerous and/or subversive. At times, the United States Congress had passed legislation limiting free speech ion certain circumstances. The first such piece of legislation was the Alien and Sedition Act of 1789. This Act stated that, among other things, criticism of the government in time of war was illegal and punishable by jail time. This law was repealed without the intervention of the judiciary. However, there was an Act in which the Supreme Court did intervene. This had an impact on the legislative code of the United States as well as the legal interpretations of the First Amendment rights that are essential components of our American way of life. This controversial piece of legislation was known as the Smith Act of 1940. This Act stated that advocating the violent overthrow of t

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