| Venue: | SCOTUS |
| Facts: | The Alien Registration Act of 1940 criminalizes advocacy for the overthrow of the US by force. And the Triman Administration is prosecuting communists. |
| Posture: | Dunno. |
| Issue: | Does this law violate 1A and 5A? |
| Holding: | No. |
| Rule: | Courts must ask whether the gravity of the "evil" discounted by its improbability justifies invasion of free speech as necessary to avoid the danger. (Learned Hand) |
| Reasoning: | Governments can obviously protect themselves from overthrow. They don't have to wait until the revolution is underway. These guys were really conspiring to do that, so it makes sense to convict them. |
| Dicta: | Black (dissenting): They weren't actually attempting this-- they just
agreed to talk about it and publish their thoughts at a later
date. This is prior censorship.
Douglas (dissenting): not a single act of sedition is charged here-- to make a lawful speech unlawful because two men conceive it is to raise the law of conspiracy to appalling proportions. |