Why Dennis v. United States is a Landmark Case |
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Authors: | MICHAL R. BELKNAP |
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Affiliation: | California Western School |
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Abstract: | A landmark, Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary tells us, is “an event or development that marks a turning point or a stage.” In my life, the case of Dennis v. United States 1 is a landmark, or perhaps more accurately, a series of landmarks. My 1973 doctoral dissertation was on Dennis. 2 Four years later that thesis became my first book. 3 My second book, a collection of articles on American political trials that appeared in 1981, contained an essay by me on Dennis. 4 By then, I assumed, I had said about everything I had to say on the case. In 1993, though, Mel Urofsky brought me back to it, asking me to write a retrospective article on Dennis for the Journal of Supreme Court History, of which he had just become the editor. 5 Now, fifteen years later, here we are together again. I am beginning to think that the “grave and probable danger” test that Dennis introduced into constitutional law will be inscribed on my tombstone. |
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