What did Justice Holmes's clear and present danger test hold the government can do?

Answer 1

The "clear and present danger" test created the firstexception to the First Amendment Free Speech Clause, and upheld the constitutionality the Espionage Act of 1917 that authorized the US government to restrict speech it considered dangerous.

The landmark case set a standard for determining reasonable constraints of expression based on whether the speech, written or spoken, constituted a "clear and present danger." In this case, the danger was determined to be a risk to the United States' recruitment and conscription efforts during WW I.

Early 20th-century cases creating strict limitations on free speech, ostensibly to preserve Law and Order, were later overturned by Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 US 444 (1969), (the Ku Klux Klan Case) which held the government cannot restrict inflammatory speech unless its intention is to incite, and is likely to incite, "imminent lawless action."

Case Citation:

Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919)

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