Changes

The Supreme Court's first attempts to define constitutionally protected expression came in a series of cases growing out of prosecutions under the [[1918 Sedition Act]] and other laws. Ironically, the "war to make the world safe for democracy" triggered the worst invasion of civil liberties at home since the nation's founding. The government obviously had to protect itself from subversion, but the new statutes seemed aimed as much at suppressing radical criticism of administration policy as at ferreting out spies. The federal laws, as well as some state counterparts, caught radicals, pacifists and other dissenters in an extensive web. The total number of indictments ran into the thousands; the Attorney General reported 877 convictions out of 1,956 cases commenced in 1919 and 1920.

The Supreme Court's first attempts to define constitutionally protected expression came in a series of cases growing out of prosecutions under the [[1918 Sedition Act]] and other laws. Ironically, the "war to make the world safe for democracy" triggered the worst invasion of civil liberties at home since the nation's founding. The government obviously had to protect itself from subversion, but the new statutes seemed aimed as much at suppressing radical criticism of administration policy as at ferreting out spies. The federal laws, as well as some state counterparts, caught radicals, pacifists and other dissenters in an extensive web. The total number of indictments ran into the thousands; the Attorney General reported 877 convictions out of 1,956 cases commenced in 1919 and 1920.