# Who was the last person in the US to be arrested for dissent? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 27, 2015, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-in-the-us-to-be-arrested-for-dissent/729079 "2015-08-27T15:58:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-in-the-us-to-be-arrested-for-dissent/729079/1 "2015-08-27T15:58:23Z")
This does not count civil disobedience, e.g. blocking traffic as form of protest. I am referring to someone being arrested in contravention of the First Amendment as understood in law for writing or speaking something that the powers that be don’t like. Thanks, Rob ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-in-the-us-to-be-arrested-for-dissent/729079/2 "2015-08-27T17:17:38Z")
I wouldn’t be surprised if this happens frequently, a common form being someone speaks very negatively to a police officer, he is arrested, released the next day and charges never brought by a prosecutor. But I’m probably just too cynical. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-in-the-us-to-be-arrested-for-dissent/729079/3 "2015-08-27T17:37:57Z")
Part of the answer would get into the gray area of disclosing items of military or national security, at which point you have to judge the merits of the material disclosed against its value as a secret. I believe there were some flat-out dissent arrests, perhaps even trials, in the late 1960s. The Chicago 7 were effectively tried for dissent, but on alternate charges, for example. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-in-the-us-to-be-arrested-for-dissent/729079/4 "2015-08-27T18:21:07Z")
Arrests probably happen all the time, but as to how many are actually even brought to trial, that’s a vanishingly small number, and the number of actual convictions is probably close to, or actually zero. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-in-the-us-to-be-arrested-for-dissent/729079/5 "2015-08-27T19:09:29Z")
Since no one’s given a date yet: [Schenck v. United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenck_v._United_States) (1919) I’d be shocked if there were not more recent examples. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-in-the-us-to-be-arrested-for-dissent/729079/6 "2015-08-27T19:24:40Z")
There were a number of post-_Schenck_ arrests (and subsequently convictions) under the Sedition Act of 1918. Really, we need a better definition of dissent. Demanding the immediate violent overthrow of the government is dissent but I don’t think that’s necessarily within the scope of what we’re looking for. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-in-the-us-to-be-arrested-for-dissent/729079/7 "2015-08-27T20:10:05Z")
There has been an ongoing [saga](http://reason.com/blog/2015/08/26/denver-concedes-distributing-jury-nullif) of people handing out jury nullification literature outside a courthouse in Denver. The activists have won the latest round in Federal court, but Denver police and prosecutors are continuing their [harassment](http://reason.com/blog/2015/08/27/denver-police-continue-harassing-july-nu).