The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Sedition Act in the ease of Shenck v. United States (1919). The Court ruled that there are times when the need for public order is so pressing that First Amendment protections of speech do not apply. The Congress limited freedom of speech even further with the passage of the Sedition Act. The act made it unlawful to use "disloyal, profane, and scurrilous.