Trotskyists on trial : free speech and political persecution since the age of FDR / Donna T. Haverty-Stacke.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

Militancy and fear : May 1934-June 1940 -- Dissent becomes a federal case : September 1940-June 1941 -- "Socialism on Trial" : July 1-November 18, 1941 -- "If that is treason, you can make the most of it" : November 18-December 8, 1941 -- Battling the "Gag" act in wartime : December 1941-December 1943 -- "A test of fire" : December 1943-November 1948 -- The ongoing struggle for civil liberties : June 1951-August 1986.

The Smith Act was a peacetime anti-sedition law that marked a dramatic shift in the legal definition of free speech protection in America by criminalizing the advocacy of disloyalty to the government by force. It also criminalized the acts of printing, publishing, or distributing anything advocating such sedition and made it illegal to organize or belong to any association that did the same. It was first brought to trial in July 1941, when a federal grand jury in Minneapolis indicted 29 Socialist Workers Party members, 15 of whom also belonged to the militant Teamsters Local 544. 18 of the defendants were convicted of conspiring to overthrow the government. Examining the social, political, and legal history of the first Smith Act case, this book focuses on the tension between the nation's cherished principle of free political expression and the demands of national security.

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