Question

True or false: in schenck v. u.s., the supreme court ruled that the espionage act was unconstitutional.

Answer 1

The correct answer is false.

It is false that in Schenck v. U.S., the Supreme Court ruled that the Espionage Act was unconstitutional.

What the United States Supreme Court ruled on this case was that freedom of speech could be suppressed or limited if it represented a risk for the national security of the country. The decision was made on March 3, 1991.

The context is that the United States decided to enter World War I, and the government passed the Espionage Act that prohibited any act against the United States' interests and any action that favored the enemy.

Answer 2

False.

The Espionage Act was passed by Congress in 1917, during wartime as the United States entered World War I. Charles Schenck was a Socialist Party leader in the US who opposed US participation in the war and mailed pamphlets to men who'd been drafted that said the government had no right to send American citizens to war to kill people in other countries. Schenck was convicted of violating the Espionage Act, but appealed to the Supreme Court, saying the Espionage Act was unconstitutional. In the 1919 decision in Schenck v. United States, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction against Schenck. Thus the Court essentially upheld the constitutionality of the Espionage Act at that time, saying that in wartime the government has extra responsibility to protect the safety of the nation. The decision, written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, said, "The question in every case is whether the words are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent."