Sedition Act

The Sedition Act of 1918 was an attempt to limit freedom of speech that opposed—or even questioned—U.S. intervention in World War I. Technically it was not a separate act, but a series of amendments to the Espionage Act of 1917. That act had given the administration of Woodrow Wilson the power to imprison and fine people who interfered with the war effort, even if that interference only consisted of using the U.S. mail to circulate anti-war propaganda. The Sedition Act took that power a step further, giving the administration the authority to arrest and prosecute people who spoke publicly against the war. A number of prominent individuals, most notably socialist Eugene V. Debs, were arrested and prosecuted under the law.

Opponents of the Sedition Act saw it as an attack on the constitutional right to freedom of speech. Supporters, like Postmaster General Albert Sidney Burleson and Attorney General Thomas W. Gregory, saw it differently. To Burleson and Gregory, the Sedition Act was a way to maintain order in a society that was becoming progressively disordered due to an increase in crime, lynching, and other forms of vigilantism. Even President Wilson tacitly approved of the act's intended purpose.

The Sedition Act became irrelevant after the end of World War I, and it was allowed to expire in 1921. However, it is still seen as one of the most dangerous threats to civil liberties in the United States ever passed into law.