Dennis v. United States

Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494 (1951), was a United States Supreme Court case relating to Eugene Dennis, General Secretary of the Communist Party USA. The Court ruled that Dennis did not have the right under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution to exercise free speech, publication and assembly, if the exercise involved the creation of a plot to overthrow the government. In 1969, Dennis was de facto overruled by Brandenburg v. Ohio. Background of the case In 1948, eleven Communist Party leaders were convicted of advocating the violent overthrow of the US government and for the violation of several points of the Smith Act. The party members who had been petitioning for socialist reforms claimed that the act violated their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and that they served no clear and present danger to the nation. The eleven petitioners were: Benjamin J. Davis – Chairman of the CPUSA's Legislative Committee Eugene Dennis – General Secretary John Gates – Leader of the Young Communist League Gil Green – Member of the National Board Gus Hall – Member of the National Board Irving Potash – Furriers Union official Jack Stachel Robert G. Thompson – Lead of the New York organization John Williamson – Member of the Central Committee Henry Winston – Member of the National Board Carl Winter – Lead of the Michigan organization The 1949 trial was presided over by S.D.N.Y. Judge Harold Medina, a former Columbia University professor who had been a judge for only 18 months when the trial began. The trial was held in the Foley Square federal courthouse in New York City, and opened on November 1, 1948; preliminary proceedings and jury selection lasted until January 17, 1949; the defendants first appeared in court on March 7; and the trial concluded on October 14, 1949. Although later trials surpassed it, in 1949 it was the longest federal trial in US history.