Existing comment:
Amending America
The founding documents of the United States, including the Bill of Rights, ensure that certain rights and privileges are protected.
During World War I, Russian immigrants and self-proclaimed anarchists distributed leaflets printed in both English and Yiddish condemning the capitalist system and America's intervention in Russia, urging workers in factories to curtail production, and encouraging support for the Russian Revolution. They were arrested and found guilty of seditious speech and violating the Sedition Act of 1918. This landmark First Amendment freedom of speech case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the guilty verdict.
Thirty years later, an activity record from FBI surveillance was part of evidence used to convict Judith Coplon, a US Department of Justice employee and alleged Soviet spy, of espionage and conspiracy. The convictions were later overturned because the court found that illegal wiretapping and her arrest without a warrant violated Coplon's Fourth Amendment right against "unreasonable searches and seizures." |