The First Amendment and political speech

Politics

The Socialist Party speaker who said publicly that the United States should "exit Iraq and Afghanistan" and that if the U.S. didn't then we "should overthrow, through violent means, this government which so often represents the few at the expense of the many" is not protected under the Supreme Court's interpretation of the 1st Amendment. An individual is protected to a certain extent under the 1st Amendment when it comes to freedom of speech, but "freedom of speech" does not mean that an individual has the right to speak in a way that purports to overthrow the government through violent means and especially in a way that may incite the same desires into the hearts of other individuals. Though some may argue with this, there are two specific cases that will be used as examples in this paper to illustrate that the speaker in this scenario is not protected under the 1st Amendment -- Gitlow v. New York and Eugene v. Debs.

First of all, in Gitlow v. New York the Supreme Court held that it is within a state's power to prevent the disturbance of the peace and control speech that may promote violence and crimes -- even if the threat does not appear to be immediate.

The 1st Amendment (the Amendment that protects one's freedom of speech) does not give any individual the right to say or to publish whatever they want without being held responsible for those words whether spoken or written. The state's job is to protect the welfare of its citizens and has the right -- or duty -- to take any threat in words seriously if it is deemed that it could pose a threat to citizens' welfare.

The Espionage Act of 1917 made it a crime to "convey information with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States or to promote the successes of its enemies."

Just a year later in 1918, Eugene V. Debs, who was a leader of the Socialist Party in the United States, proffered a speech in Ohio that protested the United State's involvement in World War I. It was during this speech that Debs encouraged socialism and -- more to the point -- he specifically spoke very highly of Americans who had refused to serve in the military as well as praising those individuals who had prevented military recruiting.

The case was similar to that of Schenck v. United States (1919) in which Schenck was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison for distributing pamphlets that opposed the draft.