Smith Act 1940 - Dennis et Al v. United States (1 janv. 1940 – 4 juin 1951)

Description:

Smith Act, formally Alien Registration Act of 1940, U.S. federal law passed in 1940 that made it a criminal offense to advocate the violent overthrow of the government or to organize or be a member of any group or society devoted to such advocacy. The first prosecutions under the Smith Act, of leaders of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), took place in 1941. After World War II the statute was used against the leadership of the American Communist Party (Communist Party of the United States of America; CPUSA). Dennis v. United States, case in which the U.S. Supreme Court on June 4, 1951, upheld the constitutionality of the Smith Act (1940), which made it a criminal offense to advocate the violent overthrow of the government or to organize or be a member of any group or society devoted to such advocacy. The case originated in 1948 when Eugene Dennis, general secretary of the American Communist Party, along with several other high-ranking communists, was arrested and convicted of having violated the Smith Act. The conviction was upheld by lower courts, despite the fact that no evidence existed that Dennis and his colleagues had encouraged any of their followers to commit specific violent acts, and was appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case.

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