Which case introduced the 'clear and present danger' standard restricting wartime speech?

• A. Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)
• B. Schenck v. United States (1919)
• C. Gitlow v. New York (1925)
• D. Whitney v. California (1927)

Answer: (B)

The key idea is that free speech can be restricted when it poses a clear and present danger to the nation’s wartime effort. In Schenck v. United States (1919), the Court upheld convictions for distributing anti-draft leaflets during World War I, saying that such speech could obstruct the draft and thus threaten national mobilization. The test asks whether the words and their surrounding circumstances create a real danger of substantive evil that Congress has a right to prevent, even if the ideas themselves are unpopular. This framework was the first formal articulation of restricting speech in wartime on the grounds of its likely consequences, not simply on disagreement with the message. Later cases refined or replaced this standard—the imminent-action focus from Brandenburg v. Ohio shifts the test toward incitement of imminent lawless action, while Gitlow concerned incorporation of the First Amendment to the states and Whitney dealt with different grounds for restricting speech.