Claim 114

Judge Learned Hand held that stopping short of urging readers to break the law should not be treated as an attempt to cause a violation of it.

Published 2026-09-22. Last reviewed 2026-09-22. 1 source.

Statement: Judge Learned Hand held that stopping short of urging readers to break the law should not be treated as an attempt to cause a violation of it.
Field: stated_justification
Value: Denied mailing on Espionage Act grounds
About: incident 1917-us-espionage-act-bars-the-masses-from-the-mail
Source: Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten (S.D.N.Y.) (1917)
Publisher: The First Amendment Encyclopedia, Middle Tennessee State University
Method: outlet report
Checked: 2026-09-22
Confidence: medium
Status: current

Quotation from the source

If one stops short of urging upon others that it is their duty or their interest to resist the law, it seems to me one should not be held to have attempted to cause its violation.