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U.S. History 1877-Present 6: The Espionage and Sedition Acts 633 Views
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Description:
During WWI the U.S. was basically like "Free speech? Pshaw, no way, we're at war, people." Yeah, it doesn't seem super constitutional, does it? Let's take a look at what happened.
Transcript
- 00:03
Technically espionage means the secret stealing of
- 00:07
confidential information while that all sounds very double-oh-seven during World [Boy dressed as detective appears from under desk]
- 00:11
War one it was a bit less glamorous in
- 00:14
two months after America declared war against Germany Congress passed the [Soldier running in the field]
- 00:17
Espionage Act making it illegal for any US citizen to interfere with the war
Full Transcript
- 00:22
effort that meant no dissonant and no declaring support for the other side [Man waving US flag]
- 00:27
basically don't root for the away team at the home game or will suffer a fate
- 00:31
far worse than a rounded food from angry fans or a peanut bumped into the back of
- 00:35
our head predictably this act was incredibly hard to enforce without going [Man in room and giant eye peering inside]
- 00:39
full-on big brother it would have been a little challenging to monitor what every
- 00:43
single person in America was doing at all times
- 00:46
well Congress also decided that the act was way too wussy so in 1918 the
- 00:51
Espionage Act was amended to include the Sedition Act this basically gave the
- 00:55
Espionage Act T we were not talking flat bencher here we're talking over Gotham [Dentures flapping and woman with fangs]
- 01:00
Empire implant basically it said that it was illegal to utter print write or
- 01:05
publish any material that criticized the US war effort or could be seen as
- 01:10
anti-american or anti-government anybody who dared would be punished by a fine of [Person scribbling on paper]
- 01:15
not more than ten thousand dollars or imprisonment for not more than twenty
- 01:19
years or both yeah sort of hard to deny that this was a clear violation of
- 01:23
Americans First Amendment rights to utter print write or publish whatever [Teacher in classroom and officer runs in]
- 01:27
the heck they wanted and keep in mind that Congress didn't just decide to add
- 01:31
this amendment because it had nothing better to do on a Thursday afternoon the
- 01:34
Sedition Act was created in an effort to shut up the many people who [People gather outside congress]
- 01:38
strongly and loudly opposed to America's involvement in World War one Eugene Debs
- 01:43
an enthusiastic socialist and founder of the Industrial Workers of the world aka
- 01:48
the Wobblies was an obvious threat even if the nickname of his organization was
- 01:52
well Connolly Eugene openly hated capitalism war and [Eugene beside board with things he hates]
- 01:57
imperialism and Wilson's idea of moral diplomacy and for speaking out he got
- 02:02
slapped with 10 years in prison what did he think this was a free [Eugene behind bars]
- 02:06
country or something well in 1919 a guy named Charles shank printed and handed
- 02:10
out thousands of leaflets encouraging men of
- 02:13
scription age to say what adds to wood raft the case went all the way to the
- 02:17
Supreme Court or Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes jr. wrote the [Oliver Wendell on court bench]
- 02:22
decision convicting Cinque the justification wartime free speech was
- 02:26
different from peacetime free speech da so even though technically the First [Girls whispering at tea party]
- 02:31
Amendment did give shank the freedom to say whatever he wanted when America was
- 02:34
at war the First Amendment could be shut down in the name of national security [Girl puts finger to lips to shh]
- 02:38
and winning the war kind of makes you wonder why the First Amendment was even
- 02:42
written if it could just be suspended whenever Congress wanted well this [Man drawing lines through first amendment]
- 02:46
decision actually stuck around until 1964 re s 1964 many years later in a
- 02:52
case called Sullivan V New York time the Supreme Court finally decided that the
- 02:56
First Amendment was not conditional turns out we have the rights it gives us
- 03:00
in peace or war it took 47 years but Americans finally got their First [Girls sitting at tea party]
- 03:05
Amendment fact and when that guy on the old chiles commercial finally gets back
- 03:09
his baby ribs all will be right with the world [Man eating baby ribs]
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