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11:19 pm![[info]](http://lj.rossia.org/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tiphareth[Link] | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Act ...Prosecutions continued until a series of United States Supreme Court decisions in 1957 threw out numerous convictions under the Smith Act as unconstitutional. The statute remains on the books, however. http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/po ...The Court had reaffirmed constitutional protections regarding free speech and self-incrimination while raising the requirement of "intent" to a level that made it difficult for prosecutors to show a Communist Party member had a criminal purpose. Nonetheless the Smith Act remained and still remains on the books. Moreover, the prosecutions had been very effective in destroying the momentum of the Party and giving it a subversive image with the general public which it has never totally shed. http://www.infoplease.com/timelines/fre 1957 The Supreme Court modifies its 1951 holding regarding the Smith Act. In Yates v. United States, the Court overturned the conviction of several Communist Party leaders under the Smith Act on the grounds that merely urging a person to believe something, as opposed to urging a person to do something, can not be made illegal. |
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