Jad Abumrad

Congress passed something called the Espionage Act.

Part of it had to do with spy stuff, but there was another part.

that made it a crime to say things.

And so all of a sudden, people were getting thrown in jail.

People who gave speeches against the draft.

And several of these cases actually made it all the way up to the Supreme Court.

So in March 1919, three different cases come up in quick succession.

Schenck v. United States, Frohwerk v. United States, Debs v. United States.

saying First Amendment does not apply here.

Like Espionage Act, lock these people up.

And Holmes, in all three of these cases, he actually writes the majority opinions.

Like, look, we are in the middle of a war.

You cannot shut your damn mouth, joke around, shut your mouth.

Otherwise, you're going to prison.

Now, Holmes had his reasons for believing that.

A lot of them going back to his experiences fighting in the Civil War.

Like he had these kind of two complicated feelings about it.

One was that it was a war to end slavery.

It was a righteous war.

But at the same time, it was a brutal and barbaric fight.