Passed in June 1940, 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 twenty-nine Socialist Workers Party members,
fifteen of whom also belonged to the militant Teamsters Local 544.
Eighteen 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 on the eve of America's entry into World
War II.
Based on newly declassified government documents and recently opened
archival sources, Trotskyists on Trial explores the implications of the
case for organized labor and civil liberties in wartime and postwar
America. The central issue of how Americans have tolerated or suppressed
dissent during moments of national crisis is not only important to our
understanding of the past, but also remains a pressing concern in the
post-9/11 world. This volume traces some of the implications of the
compromise between rights and security that was made in the
mid-twentieth century, offering historical context for some of the
consequences of similar bargains struck today.
