Document 2
William H. Rehnquist was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1986 to 2005.
… Charles T. Schenck was convicted [in 1918] of violating the act [Espionage Act] by printing
and distributing to draftees leaflets that urged them to resist the draft. Schenck took his case to
the Supreme Court, arguing that his conviction violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of
freedom of the press. The Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Oliver
Wendell Holmes, upheld his conviction. It said that “When a nation is at war many things which
might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its efforts that their utterance will not be
endured so long as men fight.… No court could regard them as protected by any constitutional
right.” The Court said that since the leaflet could be found to have been intended to obstruct
the recruiting for the armed forces, it was not protected by the First Amendment; its words
created “a clear and present danger” of bringing about conduct that Congress had a right to
prevent.…
Source: William H. Rehnquist, All the Laws but One: Civil Liberties in Wartime, Vintage Books, 1998 (adapted)
According to William H. Rehnquist, what was one argument used by the United States Supreme Court to
uphold Charles T. Schenck’s conviction under the Espionage Act?