Schenck v. United States
E32820
Schenck v. United States is a 1919 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the “clear and present danger” test, allowing the government to restrict speech during wartime.
Aliases (5)
- "Clear and present danger" doctrine ×1
- Schenck v. United States opinion ×1
- Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919) ×1
- Schenck was charged with conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act by attempting to cause insubordination in the military ×1
- The First Amendment does not protect speech that creates a clear and present danger of a significant evil that Congress has power to prevent ×1
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
→
landmark free speech case → |
| areaOfLaw |
constitutional law
→
criminal law → freedom of speech → |
| arguedYear | 1919 → |
| category |
United States free speech case
→
World War I era civil liberties case → |
| citation | 249 U.S. 47 → |
| constitutionalProvision | First Amendment to the United States Constitution → |
| country |
United States of America
→
surface form: "United States"
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States → |
| decidedYear | 1919 → |
| decisionDate | 1919-03-03 → |
| defendant |
United States of America
→
surface form: "United States"
|
| doctrineEstablished | clear and present danger test → |
| factSummary |
Charles Schenck distributed leaflets urging resistance to the military draft during World War I
→
Schenck v. United States →
surface form: "Schenck was charged with conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act by attempting to cause insubordination in the military"
|
| famousPhrase | shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic → |
| fullName |
Schenck v. United States
→
surface form: "Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919)"
|
| historicalContext | World War I → |
| holding |
Conviction under the Espionage Act for distributing anti-draft leaflets during wartime was constitutional
→
Schenck v. United States →
surface form: "The First Amendment does not protect speech that creates a clear and present danger of a significant evil that Congress has power to prevent"
|
| impact |
expanded government power to restrict speech during wartime
→
influenced later First Amendment jurisprudence → |
| jurisdiction | federal → |
| laterCharacterization | often criticized as overly restrictive of free speech → |
| legalIssue |
First Amendment freedom of speech
→
application of the Espionage Act of 1917 → |
| lowerCourt | United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania → |
| lowerCourtOutcome | conviction affirmed → |
| majorityOpinionBy | Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. → |
| opinionType | unanimous opinion → |
| page | 47 → |
| plaintiff | Charles T. Schenck → |
| precedentStatus | binding precedent at the time of decision → |
| relatedCase |
Abrams v. United States
→
Brandenburg v. Ohio → Debs v. United States → Gitlow v. New York → |
| reporter | United States Reports → |
| standardAnnounced | whether the words used create a clear and present danger that they will bring about substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent → |
| statuteInvolved | Espionage Act of 1917 → |
| subjectMatter |
anti-draft advocacy
→
political speech → |
| subsequentDevelopment | clear and present danger test later narrowed and modified by subsequent Supreme Court decisions → |
| timePeriod |
World War I
→
surface form: "World War I era"
|
| volume | 249 → |
| vote | 9–0 → |
Referenced by (12)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form: "Schenck was charged with conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act by attempting to cause insubordination in the military"
this entity surface form: "Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919)"
this entity surface form: "The First Amendment does not protect speech that creates a clear and present danger of a significant evil that Congress has power to prevent"
this entity surface form: ""Clear and present danger" doctrine"
this entity surface form: "Schenck v. United States opinion"