ABSTRACT
The Smith Act was the brainchild of Representative Howard W. Smith of Virginia. Known as Judge Smith because of his prior service on the bench in Virginia, Smith was the powerful Republican chairman of the House Rules Committee during the 1950s. Though the Smith Act was passed during the period leading up to World War II, the legislation was not aggressively used until the "red scare" of the late 1940s and early 1950s. From 1951 to 1961, the US Supreme Court reviewed many Smith Act convictions; however, four major Smith Act cases demonstrate how the Court shaped its analysis of incitement precedent to address the public's anxiety about the perceived Communist threat. By the time of the second major Smith Act case, Yates v. United States, 354 US 298, the composition of the Court had changed. Vinson-the fervent anti-Communist-was dead, and Earl Warren had taken his place as chief justice.
