Gitlow V. New York - Background

Background

In the years following the Red Scare of 1919-20, a variety of leftists, either anarchists, sympathizers with the Bolshevik Revolution, labor activists, or members of a communist or socialist party, were convicted for violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and Sedition Act of 1918 on the basis of their writings or statements. Benjamin Gitlow, a member of the Socialist Party of America who had served in the New York State Assembly, was charged with criminal anarchy under New York's Criminal Anarchy Law of 1902 for publishing in July 1919 a document called "Left Wing Manifesto" in The Revolutionary Age, a newspaper for which he served as business manager. His trial lasted from January 22 to February 5, 1920. His defense contended that the Manifesto represented historical analysis rather than advocacy. He was convicted on February 11 and sentenced to 5 to 10 years in prison. He served more than two years at Sing Sing prison before his motion to appeal was granted and he was released on bail. State courts of appeal upheld his conviction. New York's Criminal Anarchy Law was passed in 1902 following the assassination of President William McKinley by an anarchist in Buffalo, New York, in September 1901.

Gitlow was the first major First Amendment case that the American Civil Liberties Union argued before the Supreme Court.

The Court had to consider whether it could review a challenge to a state law on the basis that it violated the federal constitution. If it determined that such a challenge lay within the scope of its authority, then it had to review to application of the law to the case at hand, the specific violation of the statue.

It upheld Gitlow's conviction 7-2, with Brandeis and Holmes dissenting.