| Abrams v. United States
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Supreme Court of the United States
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Argued October 21-22, 1919
Decided November 10, 1919
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| Full case name:
| Jacob Abrams, et al. v. United States
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| Citations:
| 250 U.S. 616; 40 S. Ct. 17; 63 L. Ed. 1173; 1919 U.S. LEXIS 1784
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| Prior appellate history:
| Defendants convicted, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
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| Subsequent appellate history:
| none
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| Holding
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| Defendants' criticism of U.S. involvement in World War I was not protected by the First Amendment, because they advocated a strike in munitions production and the violent overthrow of the government.
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| Court membership
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| Chief Justice Edward Douglass White
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| Associate Judges Joseph McKenna, Oliver Wendell Holmes, William R. Day, Willis Van Devanter, Mahlon Pitney, James McReynolds, Louis Brandeis, John Hessin Clarke
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| Case opinions
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| Majority by: Clarke
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| Joined by: White, McKenna, Day, Van Devanter, Pitney, McReynolds
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| Dissent by: Holmes
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| Joined by: Brandeis
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| Laws applied
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| U.S. Const. amend. I; 50 U.S.C. § 33 (1917)
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Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919), was a decision of the United States Supreme Court involving the Sedition Act of 1918, which made it a criminal offense to criticize the U.S. federal government. The Court ruled 7-2 that the Act did not violate civil rights under the First Amendment, with Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis Brandeis dissenting. The case was overturned during the Vietnam War era.
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