Mistrial in Chaotic Right-Wing Sedition Trial
In the middle of World War II. the Justice Department, under intense pressure from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, indicted and tried a motley group of right-wing critics of the administration. Members of the group were indicted under the 1940 Smith Act, which made it a crime to advocate the violent overthrow of the government (see June 29, 1940).
The trial ended on this day with a mistrial because of the death of the judge. The trial was labelled the “Great Sedition Trial” and the case is generally referred to by that name.
The defendants were a rag-tag group of right-wingers, Roosevelt haters, and anti-Semites. The more notable ones were Elizabeth Dilling, a fervent anti-Communist and Roosevelt hater, and George Sylvester Viereck, a right-wing writer and social critic.
Most observers felt the case was a politically motivated attack on critics of President Roosevelt and had little legal basis. There was, for example, little evidence of any actions that met the terms of the Smith Act’s prohibition of advocating the overthrow of the government. In fact, the trt of the trial was delayed several times as the Justice Department attorneys struggled to develop an acceptable indictment. The trial quickly degenerated into a circus, in part because of the antics of some of the defendants, and proved to be an embarrassment to the administration.
The case was authorized by Attorney General Francis Biddle because of intense pressure from President Roosevelt, who was in turn responding to pressure from some liberals and leftists who demanded action against “fascists’ in America. Biddle knew the Justice Department did not have a good case, but caved in to the steady pressure from President Roosevelt. (Biddle had also caved in to Roosevelt on the Japanese-American evacuation and internment.
The case is almost completely forgotten by Americans today, and is largely remembered by extreme right-wing and anti-Semitic groups.
Learn more: Maximilian St. George and Lawrence Dennis, A Trial on Trial: The Great Sedition Trial of 1944 (1946)
Read: Richard W. Steele, Free Speech in the Good War (1999)
Learn more about “The Great Sedition Trial” here
And read about right-wing crusader Elizabeth Dilling here