ABSTRACT
This chapter, the US Congress passed the Smith Act making it illegal for anyone in the United States to advocate or teach the forcible overthrow of the government. Yates v. United States, 354 US 298 (1957), the Court modified its ruling in Dennis to increase First Amendment protections for political speech. Yates involved the 1951 convictions of fourteen "second string" members of the Communist Party in California. The Court majority, Justice John M. Harlan found that the trial judge's instructions to the jury did not adequately distinguish between advocacy and teaching of abstract doctrine and advocacy of unlawful action either now or at some point in the future. The Smith Act prohibited advocacy of action and not advocacy of ideas. Advocacy and teaching addressed at taking action, whether or not incitement, was punishable. Advocacy addressed at merely believing in something was not punishable. The Court began to incorporate elements of District Court Judge Learned Hand's incitement approach.
