In 1940, Congress passed the Alien Registration Act, or Smith Act, making it a crime for any person to knowingly advocate, or conspire to advocate, the overthrow of the United States government, or to organize any group which does so. The legislation was intended for use in suppressing Fascist and Communist organizations. Eight years later, authorities arrested Eugene Dennis and ten other leaders of the Communist Party of America and prosecuted them for violating the Smith Act. A federal district court convicted them.
On appeal, the Supreme Court addressed the question of whether or not the Smith Act inherently, or as applied in the Dennis case, violated the First Amendment. In a 6 to 2 decision, the Court upheld the Communists' conviction and declared the Smith Act constitutionally sound. In his plurality opinion, Chief Justice Vinson applied the "clear and present danger" standard established in Schenck v. United States, finding that the eleven leaders' "conspiracy to organize the Communist Party and to teach and advocate the overthrow of the Government of the United States by force and violence created a 'clear and present danger' of an attempt to overthrow the Government by force and violence." The fact that such an attempt would be highly unlikely to succeed did not, the Court found, have any bearing on the case.
Later, the Court modified its opinion in Dennis, upon consideration of Yates v. United States (1957). In this case, the Court found that an overly broad application of the Smith Act might violate the First Amendment. If a group engaged in "advocacy and teaching of forcible overthrow as an abstract principle," restriction of free speech was not in order. Only if a group engaged in "advocacy and teaching of concrete action for the forcible overthrow of the Government" could its speech justifiably be restricted under the Smith Act.
good data, thanks.
so far as I can tell, the Koran and Sunnah are NOT speaking in the abstract, but it will give lawyers some wiggle-room.