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Clear and present danger is a term used by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. in the majority opinion for the case Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919), concerning speech against the draft during World War I: Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Clear and present danger is a term used by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. ... Clear and Present Danger is a 1994 film directed by Phillip Noyce, based on the book of the same name by Tom Clancy. ... The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States... Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. ... Holding Defendants criticism of the draft was not protected by the First Amendment, because it created a clear and present danger to the enlistment and recruiting practices of the U.S. armed forces during a state of war. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ...

Following Schenck v. United States, "clear and present danger", became a standard test in cases where a United States law limits a citizen's First Amendment rights; the law is deemed to be constitutional if it can be shown that the language it prohibits is language that poses a "clear and present danger". However, it should be noted that the "clear and present danger" criterion of the Schenck decision was later modified by Brandenburg v. Ohio, and the test refined to determining whether the speech would provoke an imminent lawless action. Type Bicameral Houses Senate House of Representatives President of the Senate President pro tempore Dick Cheney, (R) since January 20, 2001 Robert C. Byrd, (D) since January 4, 2007 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, (D) since January 4, 2007 Members 535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner Political... For other uses, see War (disambiguation). ... A peace dove, widely known as a symbol for peace, featuring an olive branch in the doves beak. ... Holding Ohios criminal syndicalism statute violated the First Amendment, as applied to the state through the Fourteenth, because it broadly prohibited the mere advocacy of violence rather than the constitutionally unprotected incitement to imminent lawless action. ... Imminent lawless action is a term used in the United States Supreme Court case Brandenburg v. ...

The vast majority of legal scholars have concluded that in writing the Schenck opinion Justice Holmes never meant to replace the "bad tendency" test which had been established in the 1868 British case The Queen v. Hicklin and incorporated into American jurisprudence in the 1904 Supreme Court case U.S. ex rel. Turner v. Williams. This is demonstrated by the use of the word "tendency" in Schenck itself, a paragraph in Schenck explaining that the success of speech in causing the actual harm was not a prerequisite for conviction, and use of the bad-tendency test in the simultaneous Frohwerk v. United States and Debs v. United States decisions (both of which cite Schenck without using the words "clear and present danger"). Schenck may mean: // Names Surname of the following personalities Aubrey Schenck (* August 26, 1908; † April 14, 1999) - film producer Carl Alwyn Schenck (* 1868; † 1955) - pioneer of forestry in the USA and Europe Carl Schenck (* November 14, 1835; † December 19, 1910) - German mercantilist and founder of the Carl Schenck Eisengießerei... The case surrounded a speech in Canton, Ohio against World War I given by him publicly. ...

However, a subsequent essay by Zechariah Chafee entitled "Freedom of Speech in War Time" (32 Harv. L. Rev. 932 (1919)) argued despite context that Holmes had intended to substitute for the bad-tendency standard a more protective standard of free speech, clear and present danger. Bad tendency was a far more ambiguous standard where speech could be punished even in the absence of identifiable danger, and as such was strongly opposed by the fledgling ACLU and other libertarians of the time. Zechariah Chafee, 1907 (Brown Archives) Zechariah Chafee, Jr. ... The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, is a non_governmental organization devoted to defending civil rights and civil liberties in the United States. ...

Having read Chafee's article, Holmes decided to retroactively reinterpret what he had meant by "clear and present danger" and accepted Chafee's characterization of the new test in his dissent in Abrams v. United States just six months after Schenck, perhaps the only time in history where a single legal scholar changed the course of jurisprudence. Significantly unlike Abrams, the cases of Schenck, Frohwerk, and Debs had all produced unanimous decisions. Justice Brandeis soon began citing the "clear and present danger" test in his concurrences, but the new standard was not accepted by the full court until its official adoption in Brandenburg v. Ohio 50 years later. Facts of the Case The defendants were convicted on the basis of two leaflets they printed and threw from windows of a building. ... Louis Dembitz Brandeis (November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an American litigator, Supreme Court Justice, advocate of privacy, and developer of the Brandeis Brief. ... Holding Ohios criminal syndicalism statute violated the First Amendment, as applied to the state through the Fourteenth, because it broadly prohibited the mere advocacy of violence rather than the constitutionally unprotected incitement to imminent lawless action. ...

Research resources

• First Amendment Library entry on Schenck v. United States
• First Amendment Library entry on Famous First Amendment Phrases: Origins

See also

• Shouting fire in a crowded theater
• Imminent lawless action