ABSTRACT
Abrams v. United States is a case in which the US Supreme Court upheld the conviction of individuals who criticized the US government and its policies during World War I against challenges that these convictions violated. Jacob Abrams and fellow defendants were anarchists and/or socialists who had immigrated to the United States from Russia. Justice John H. Clarke wrote the seven-two opinion upholding the convictions. He relied on Schenck v. United States and other Court rulings holding that Congress could suppress speech that presented a "clear and present danger." The dissenting opinion by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. has received far more attention. Although Holmes authored the Schenck decision, he dissented from Abrams, indicating a shift to an even more libertarian approach to the subject. Fearing that the defendants were being prosecuted for holding to a "creed of ignorance and immaturity" rather than for specific actions, Justice Holmes argued that "fighting faiths" should be protected.
