The WWI Law That Jailed US Americans for Talking | Sedition Act

Описание: In 1918, the US government made it a federal crime to criticize the war, the flag, or the military — punishable by up to 20 years in prison. This is the story of the Sedition Act of 1918, the law that jailed ordinary Americans for pamphlets, speeches, and private conversations, and the Supreme Court dissent that outlived it by a century.

Passed in the final months of World War One, the Sedition Act led to over 2,000 prosecutions in under three years. It was repealed in 1920 — but the people already convicted under it stayed in prison anyway. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes's dissent in Abrams v. United States became one of the most cited free speech arguments in American legal history.

🔔 Subscribe for more One Decision deep dives into the moments that quietly rewrote American history.

#ushistory #dumbhistory #ww1 #sedationact #freespeech #americanhistory #1918