July 14, 1798: The First Time the US Government Made Criticism a Crime

The First Amendment was seven years old when Congress contradicted it.On July 14, 1798, a Federalist-controlled Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous, or malicious writing about the United States government, and the law was used almost exclusively against newspaper editors and pamphlet publishers who supported the opposing Democratic-Republican party. At least 17 people were indicted, including Matthew Lyon, a sitting congressman from Vermont who was convicted for criticizing President John Adams and sentenced to four months in a jail cell shared with felons. Lyon ran his re-election campaign from that cell and won by a landslide, and the prosecuted editors became folk heroes whose treatment helped sweep the Federalists from power in the election of 1800, ending them as a major national political force. The legal question the Act raised outlived it by more than a century, resurfacing in a new Sedition Act in 1918 and in Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes's evolving opinions on free speech, before the modern framework for press freedom was finally established in New York Times v. Sullivan in 1964, 166 years after the original law passed.From bsnsHistory, the daily podcast about the moments when business quietly reshaped the world.Written and hosted by Ron Trucks. Research and editing by Rodney Russ. Sound design by Angela Cahoy. Music by Cody Martin and Soundstripe.For more daily business stories, visit www.bsnsDAILYpodcasts.com