In Debs, however, Holmes did not address the circumstances that may have led Debs’s speech to be potentially dangerous to recruitment. (Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain) Holmes focused on Debs's underlying intent in his speech However, the Court upheld the conviction. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Debs appealed his conviction, arguing his speech was protected by the First Amendment. He was convicted of obstructing military recruitment and enlistment. In 1918, Debs was jailed for a speech given in Canton, Ohio. United States (1919), suggesting that judges must examine the context in which the speech was made, rather than the “ bad tendency” of the words alone as had been traditional in free-speech cases. Just one week before the Debs opinion was announced, Holmes had introduced the “ clear and present danger” test in Schenck v. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Debs appealed his conviction, arguing his speech was protected by the First Amendment. He was arrested for the speech, however, and was convicted of obstructing military recruitment and enlistment. Debs arrested for speech even though he avoided illegal advocacyīefore an audience of about 1,200 people, Debs offered his support for the prisoners, saying that they were paying the price for “seeking to pave the way to better conditions for all mankind.” Debs, a pacifist, condemned the ongoing war but took care not to advocate any illegal activity and even commented to his audience that he had to be prudent with his word choice. On June 16, 1918, Debs gave a speech outside the Canton, Ohio, prison, where he had visited three Socialists convicted of violating the Sedition Act. Debs’s conviction under the Sedition Act of 1918.ĭebs was a well-known public figure he had received almost 1 million votes when he ran for President in 1912. 211 (1919), sustaining socialist leader Eugene V. authored the unanimous Supreme Court decision in Debs v. (Image via Library of Congress, public domain) United States (1919), which upheld his conviction in the Supreme Court, as a low-water mark in the protection of free speech during wartime. Harding commuted his sentence to time served in December 1921. He had been imprisoned in 1918 under the Sedition Act, for giving a speech against participation in the First World War. Debs leaving the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, on Christmas Day 1921.
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