The early Supreme Court justices wrestled with how much free press and speech is protected by the First Amendment, and with whether the Sedition Act of 1798 violated freedoms of press and speech. This book discusses the Supreme Court justices before John Marshall, their views of liberties of press and speech, and the Sedition Act prosecutions over which some of them presided. The book presents the views of the pre-Marshall justices about freedoms of press and speech, before the struggle of 1798–1801. It finds that their views were strikingly more expansive than the narrow definition of Sir Wil ... More

The early Supreme Court justices wrestled with how much free press and speech is protected by the First Amendment, and with whether the Sedition Act of 1798 violated freedoms of press and speech. This book discusses the Supreme Court justices before John Marshall, their views of liberties of press and speech, and the Sedition Act prosecutions over which some of them presided. The book presents the views of the pre-Marshall justices about freedoms of press and speech, before the struggle of 1798–1801. It finds that their views were strikingly more expansive than the narrow definition of Sir William Blackstone that is usually assumed to have dominated the period. Not one justice adopted that narrow definition before 1798. The book reassesses the conclusions of the early Supreme Court justices about the Sedition Act of 1798 and its constitutionality. It finds that they divided almost evenly over that issue, rather than unanimously supporting the Act as is generally assumed. The book similarly reassesses the Federalist Party itself, and finds that it also divided over the constitutionality of the Sedition Act and over the narrow Blackstone approach during 1798–1801, and that the states did as well in considering the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. In addition, it summarizes the recognized fourteen prosecutions of newspaper editors and others under the Sedition Act of 1798, and adds to those by identifying and confirming twenty-two additional Sedition Act prosecutions. All of this challenges existing histories of the early republic and of the early Supreme Court justices.