One of the major themes from this weeks material was the significance of dissent during times of war.
During World War I, many United States citizens who opposed the war were punished just for expressing their opinions about the war. The Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 were instated so it could be used to prosecute antiwar activists, socialist and communist who opposed the U.S. involvement in the war. The Quartet of Cases in 1919, people such as Charles Schenck, Eugene Debs, Jacob Abrams and Jacob Frohwerk were all punished for expressing antiwar views. These four cases are a demonstration on how limited First Amendment protections were during this period and how the government viewed antiwar speech as a threat rather than protected political expression.
The Schenck case was an extremely important case because the court held that the Espionage act did not violate the first amendment and it was an appropriate exercise of Congress' wartime authority. That being said it was the first that the "clear and present danger test" was articulated. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes stated that the First Amendment does not protect speech that approaches creating a clear and present
danger of a significant evil that Congress has power to prevent. However, the Abrams case also became a monumental First Amendment case because Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote the famous dissent that defended the freedom of speech. Holmes states that "the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market" (Abrams v. United States, 1919). This famous dissent presented the new idea of the Marketplace of Ideas, which proposed that society benefits when all viewpoints, opposing or similar can compete openly and the strongest ideas will prevail. According to the Free Speech Center , the Marketplace of Ideas continues to be "one of the most influential theories supporting freedom of speech" because it supports open debate rather than government censorship.
After exploring Antiwar.com and The American Conservative, I noticed that both websites provide different perspectives on war and foreign policy, that vary from what is shown in mainstream media. Prior to this assignment, I have never even thought to visit either of these websites. Antiwar.com depicts itself as being "devoted to the cause of non interventionism" (Antiwar.com) After reading a few articles from both sites I realized that strong antiwar or antipolicy viewpoints are very strong today, but they recieve a lot less of attention than perspectives that support military intervention.
I believe one reason antiwar voices can be hard to find is because major news companies report on government officials, military leaders, and political experts as sources when they cover international conflicts. This can inherently results in more attention being given to the governments view rather than the opposed. Besides, social media algorithms and news organizations will typically promote stories that
create the most engagement which then makes it hard to see opposing viewpoints. Antiwar perspectives are not purposefully being silence, but because of mainstream media and what is reported it is a lot less common to see the opposing viewpoint, meaning people have to actively seek them out rather than encountering it through the media.
The history of the Progressive Era demonstrates why protecting dissent is extremely important. Many Antiwar activists during World War I were punished for expressing opposing opinions, when today those opinions would receive strong constitutional protection. Cases that took place later in history like Gitlow v. New York expanded the First Amendments safeguards to include incorporation, which meant that the court incorporates all parts of the bill of rights into the word liberty int he due process clauses in order to reach down to the state and local level, which was a major step in expanding our First Amendment rights. Near v. Minnesota established that any prior restrains are considered almost always unconstitutional, and only involved 3 exceptions. Together, these two court cases helped create what we know as the modern First Amendment which strengthened the protections for unpopular or opposing speech.
The main idea that I got from this weeks material was that democracy relies on allowing people to challenge government policies and opinions especially during times of conflict. Whether someone supports or opposes military involvement the First Amendment protects their rights to express those opinions. The Marketplace of Ideas is a reminder that unpopulae opinions shouldn't be silenced just because they are controversial and not the mainstream voice. Instead, they should be allowed to compete openly in public debate, allowing us to evaluate different views and make informed decisions for ourselves.
Sources
Abrams v. United States | Constitution Center. (2022). National Constitution Center – Constitutioncenter.org. https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/supreme-court-case-library/abrams-v-united-states
On Liberty. (n.d.). The Free Speech Center. https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/on-liberty/
Who we Are - Antiwar.com. (2026). Antiwar.com. https://www.antiwar.com/who.php
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