ABSTRACT
Governments have an inherent right to survive, a corollary of which is that they have the right to take action against subversive action, including subversive speech. The "subversive speech" is ambiguous, for it contains two ideas: speech and action. Subversive acts include treason, espionage, sabotage, sedition, terrorism, and insurrection. Sedition is the most likely to involve subversive speech, for it involves inciting others-usually by speech-to commit overt acts of subversion. The US government proscribed subversive expression with enactment of the alien and sedition laws, which prohibited any person from writing, printing, uttering, or publishing any false or scandalous and malicious statements about the government of the United States, including both houses of Congress and the president. One of the earliest Supreme Court decisions dealing with subversive speech was Schenck v. United States, which involved the prosecution of Charles Schenck, general secretary of the Socialist Party, and others for distributing antidraft materials to men the government was recruiting for military service.
