Tag Archives: supreme court

3 Landmark Supreme Court Cases

Here are some favorites I did for my American Politics course:

Schenck v. United States (1919)
For: Defendant Charles Schenck, a socialist, had violated the Espionage Act of 1917 by mailing leaflets informing World War I draftees to eschew military service. The Espionage Act had specifically made it illegal to interfere with the military or their activities during wartime. Since, Schenck did so, his conviction should be upheld. According to the Supreme Court, he had created “clear and present danger” and therefore his speech was not protected.

Against
: Congress’ Espionage Act was unconstitutional because it violated free speech rights protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution, which reads, “Congress shall make no law…. abridging the freedom of speech.” Since, the act Schenck violated is in itself a violation of the law his conviction should have been overturned.

My Opinion: Even though, the Supreme Court upheld his conviction, I believe he should not have faced any imprisonment. The Espionage Act was invalid because it was illegal from the start. Schenck’s free speech did not create a “clear and present danger” to me and therefore it should be legal. Ultimately, the act was merely a factor of the Red Scare that swept the first half of the 20th Century, with the intention of jailing socialists, communists, and anarchists.

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Elementary Ideas on Democracy

Changes come from the bottom, not the top. As everyone knows, Obama championed the vague concept of “change” to the American people throughout his campaign. And of course everyone ate it up because eight years of a right wing war criminal in office will do serious brain damage to you. So, people wanted a Democrat to fuck things up once again. Anyway, as history demonstrates major societal changes, such as severely kicking racism square in the pills (though it’s alive and well and still needs ass whooping)come through the struggles of everyday people and then the elites react to it. Your history and government textbooks want you to believe the opposite: the elitists, like the Supreme Court randomly decided to battle racism and end legal segregation in the South. Yes, it’s true that that wasn’t the top priority for the majority of America, but as Abbie Hoffman once stated, “You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.” Well, the black rights and civil rights activists, such as Richard Wright and Rosa Parks, and countless others were the “dissidents” and the American people were the “assimilated conformists.” In simple terms, democracy is everyone’s opportunity to participate and have a major influence in the political process. Not mob rule as school an TV have led you to believe. So, the very idea that Obama will clean up the mess of the Bush Administration and previous administrations through health care reform, abortion reform, etc. is absurd. The social ills affecting everyone, particularly the poverty stricken people he doesn’t care that much about, cannot be obliterated through reforms because reforms imply that the system is well intentioned and good, but needs some tidying up. WRONG! you never hear a politician say “we’re doing our best to reform rape” or “With our new program we plan to seriously reform child abuse.” Of course not! because we want to ABOLISH the evils of rape and child abuse. In short, we don’t need reforms, we need changes…. but don’t look to your pal Barry for that, look to one another and create some real dialogue.

Chris