Biography
Charles T. Schenck was the general Secretary of the Socialist Party of Philadelphia. In August 1917 the local printed ~15, 000 antidraft leaflets ("Long Live the Constitution... Wake Up, America!") urging draftees to assert their Thirteenth Amendment rights. Arrested in a raid on the SP Philadelphia office, convicted in late 1917. His unanimous SCOTUS appeal produced Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919) — Justice Holmes's landmark "clear and present danger" / "fire in a crowded theatre" dictum. Served six months in federal prison.
Richard Polenberg’s 1994 study identifies J. Whitaker Thompson as the trial judge and Francis Fisher Kane as the prosecutor in the Schenck–Baer prosecution. Journal of Supreme Court History, 1994, printed page 26.
