 Anti @-@ war protests during World War I gave rise to several important free speech cases related to sedition and inciting violence . In the 1919 case Schenck v. United States the Supreme Court held that an anti @-@ war activist did not have a First Amendment right to speak out against the draft . In his majority opinion , Justice Holmes introduced the clear and present danger test , which would become an important concept in First Amendment law ; but the Schenck decision did not formally adopt the test . Holmes later wrote that he intended the clear and present danger test to refine , not replace , the bad tendency test . Although sometimes mentioned in subsequent rulings , the clear and present danger test was never endorsed by the Supreme Court as a test to be used by lower courts when evaluating the constitutionality of legislation that regulated speech . 
