ABSTRACT
In the context of the right to free speech guaranteed under the First Amendment to the Constitution, the US Supreme Court used the "bad-tendency test" from the late nineteenth century through the 1930s. The bad-tendency test permitted the government to prohibit speech before it could create a real danger. The rationale was that the natural and reasonable tendency of the words or publication to result in an illegal act justified suppression of speech and publishing. The bad-tendency test afforded little protection to individuals publicly opposing government policies. Debs v. United States, 249 US 211, is the classic example of the bad-tendency test at work. Eugene Debs, the leader of the American Socialist Party, was convicted for allegedly obstructing the drafting of men for service in the US military during World War I. The Supreme Court specifically overruled the bad- tendency test for free speech cases in Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 US 444.
