Communist Party Vs Dennis

Dennis v. United States In 1951 Eugene Dennis, General Secretary of the American Communist Party, fought the United States in the Supreme court case Dennis vs United States. The case originated from a 1948 incident where 11 members of the Communist Party of the United States of America were arrested by authorities for advocating the overthrow of the United States government. In the original of court jurisdiction the members were found guilty for the violation of the Smith Act (otherwise known as the Alien Registration Act of 1940). One of the points of the Smith Act that the leaders were convicted of stated that “SEC. 2. (a) It shall be unlawful for any person - "(1) to knowingly or willfully advocate, abet, advise, or teach the duty, necessity,

Anti-communist sentiments and fears played into public view of the trial. Eugene Davis and the convicted communist party members argued that the Alien Registration Act violated the First Amendment right to the freedom of speech. They claimed that their party’s actions held no present and clear dangers of a plot to violently overthrow the government. The prosecution argued that the Communist Party of the United States of America was actively advocating the violent overthrow of the American government. The Communist Manifesto and other pieces of literature were presented to the court as examples of dangerous materials that posed a direct threat to the United States government. It was said that by supporting these potentially dangerous documents in groundwork of the political party that called for an overthrow of the US government that the Communist Party leaders were directly working towards a

He argued that there was no immediate threat posed by the Communist Party of the United States of America. He argued that all they had done was plan to meet at later time to discuss issues and ideas. He worried that this decision would limit the protection of the First Amendment to American citizens and give a massive amount of power to the United States government. However the court’s decision coincided with public opinion at the time. Many Americans in the early 1950’s were fearful of the spread of communism, a fear that was bolstered by the United States