ABSTRACT
The plight of Eugene Dennis and his eleven comrades was the basis for the first major prosecution of Communists during the Cold War "red scare" of the 1950s. Dennis was indicted for conspiring, along with eleven other Communist leaders, to overthrow the US government. Dennis was ultimately argued at the Supreme Court in December 1950, but the decision was not issued until the following June. Dennis v. United States was to be the most restrictive decision the Court would issue concerning free speech, especially incitement. Dennis and eleven other Communist Party leaders were prosecuted under the Smith Act of 1940. First Amendment law had changed markedly in the thirty-three years since Masses was released, mostly as a result of World War II. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, a renewed fear of communism also became ever present. Dennis was decided in this atmosphere.
