Question

Read this excerpt from “Schenck v. U.S., 249 U.S. 47 (1919)" and answer the question that follows: This is an indictment in three counts. The first charges a conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917, by causing and attempting to cause insubordination, in the military and naval forces of the United States, and to obstruct the recruiting and enlistment service of the United States, when the United States was at war with the German Empire, to-wit, that the defendant willfully conspired to have printed and circulated to men who had been called and accepted for military service under the Act of May 18, 1917, a document set forth and alleged to be calculated to cause such insubordination and obstruction. The count alleges overt acts in pursuance of the conspiracy, ending in the distribution of the document set forth. The second count alleges a conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, to-wit, to use the mails for the transmission of matter declared to be non-mailable by title 12, 2, of the Act of June 15, 1917, to-wit, the above mentioned document, with an averment of the same overt acts. The third count charges an unlawful use of the mails for the transmission of the same matter and otherwise as above. The defendants were found guilty on all the counts. They set up the First Amendment to the Constitution forbidding Congress to make any law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, and bringing the case here on that ground have argued some other points also of which we must dispose. According to the bolded lines, what is one reason for Schenck’s indictment?

Answer 1

Charles Shenk was the general secretary of the Committee of the Socialist party, which approved and printed a lot of pamphlets that were delivered to men called by the army to fight in the World War I, insisting to defend their rights without undergoing to the army. This fact obstructed the recruiting and enlistment service of the United States. Additionally, the socialist committee rejected the First Amendment, the reason why he and Elizabeth Bear were convicted to violate the preset laws and go against the recruiting justly during the war.