1) 1) What all these have in common is some form of patriotism, protection, and staying true to your country. They also almost have a paranoia feel tied in with some Xenophobia, which is fear of foreigners. All these are meant to umbrella us with a sense of protection, some being a false since like the fries and cabbage, because honestly that was just used to make us supposedly feel better at the time. With freedom fries, people (mainly on the east coast) renamed French Fries to Freedom Fries because of France not supporting the war and such. Liberty Cabbage was sauerkraut back in WWI, and people called it Liberty Cabbage because they didn’t want to talk about or acknowledge Germans. The PATRIOT Act was all about terrorism and ,” the Act increased the ability of law enforcement agencies to search telephone and e-mail communications and medical, financial and other records; eased restrictions on foreign intelligence gathering within the United States; expanded the Secretary of the Treasury’s authority to regulate financial transactions, particularly those involving foreign individuals and entities; and enhanced the discretion of law enforcement and immigration authorities in detaining and deporting immigrants suspected of terrorism-related acts.” (according to Wikipedia.com). The Espionage Act of 1917, “which made it a crime for a person to convey information with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies.” (according to Wikipedia.com). Finally, the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, “claimed the acts were designed to protect the United States from alien citizens of enemy powers and to stop seditious attacks from weakening the government.” (Wikipedia.com).
2) 2)Today, and in the past 50 and even 100 years, that act could have gotten just about anyone into trouble. If you think about it, people bash leaders, politicians, presidents, candidates, and just about anything in this area in everyday conversation and with pamplets, in magazines, newspapers (back then and even today) and today on television and the internet. A die hard, right winged conservative is probably not going to have much, if anything, nice to say about a die hard, left winged liberal. Also, people of foreign decent would be targeted. To your American with Middle-Eastern decent. Even if they moved here from that country, like Iraq, they are still a citizen of “over there” and part of the “enemy power.” If one of those people where to speak out against what the U.S. (their own country now), is doing, then they would be in violation of the act. So would anyone who helped them. So today, those people would have to keep quiet and make sure not to throw any leaflets bashing the U.S. in the early hours of the morning...
3) 3) Abrams v. U.S. is the one I picked.
facts of the case – Espionage Act case. Four refugees from the Czarist Russia. 3 = anarchist 1 = socialist. All outraged at Pres. Wilson’s decision to send troops to Russia after Bolshevik Revolution. They through leaflettes in NY at night, urging a general strike to protest what was going on in Russia. Charged with an attempt to harm American prosecution of the war against Germany. P 76.
issue of law – According to the Act, it is breaking that law/act. Clearly with what was written about the Act above, what the four men did was wrong. However, looking at it today, all they really did was yes they did denounce what was going on, but they dropped leaflets and didn’t really harm people. The language of the leaflets, according to the book, is got the crime label. P76.
Quote – Justice Holmes, “I never have seen any reason to doubt…that the questions of law that alone were before this court…were rightfully decided.” p 77.
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