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Constitutional Law - Civil Rights - First Amendment Freedoms-Reformulation Of The Clear And Present Danger Doctrine, Bernard A. Petrie

Michigan Law Review

In July 1948 the apostles of Communism in America were indicted under the conspiracy provisions of the Smith Act of 1940. The tension marking both the trial and the present era has obscured the constitutional problems and policy considerations involved. It is the purpose of this comment to trace the history of this cause celebre, Dennis et al. v. United States, and to examine its effect upon our constitutional notions of the permissible bounds of utterance, primarily by an analysis of the appellate opinions.