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The Alien Registration Act of 1940 (Smith Act, 76th United States Congress, 3d session, ch. 439, 54 Stat. 670, 18 U.S.C. § 2385, enacted June 29, 1940) is a United States federal statute that set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government and required all non-citizen adult residents to register with the government.

The Act is best known for its use against political organizations and figures, with approximately 215 Americans indicted under terms of the legislation, including alleged communists, Trotskyists, and fascists. Prosecutions continued under the Smith Act until a series of United States Supreme Court decisions in 1957 reversed a number of convictions so obtained as unconstitutional. The statute has not been repealed.

History[link]

Establishment[link]

The Act was proposed by Congressman Howard W. Smith of Virginia, a Democrat and a leader of the "anti-labor" bloc of congressmen.^[1] The bill was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The Act set federal criminal penalties that included fines or imprisonment for as long as twenty years and denied all employment by the federal government for five years following a conviction for anyone who:

"...with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of any such government, prints, publishes, edits, issues, circulates, sells, distributes, or publicly displays any written or printed matter advocating, advising, or teaching the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force or violence, or attempts to do so; or...organizes or helps or attempts to organize any society, group, or assembly of persons who teach, advocate, or encourage the overthrow or destruction of any such government by force or violence; or becomes or is a member of, or affiliates with, any such society, group, or assembly of persons, knowing the purposes thereof.

The first trial, in 1941 was targeted on Trotskyists, primarily those in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). The second, held in 1944, singled out 30 alleged fascists. Beginning in 1949, leaders and members of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) were targeted. In addition to the 30 alleged fascists prosecuted in 1944, a total of more than 185 leaders of the SWP and CPUSA were indicted under the Smith Act between 1941 and 1956.^[2]

Prosecutions[link]

Minneapolis 1941[link]

In Minneapolis in 1941, leaders of the Trotskyist SWP and activists with Local 544 of the Teamsters union there.

SWP defendants included James P. Cannon, Carl Skoglund, Farrell Dobbs, Grace Carlson, Harry DeBoer, Max Geldman, Albert Goldman and twelve other party leaders. Goldman also acted as the defendants' lawyer during the trial. The SWP had been influential there since the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934. The SWP had advocated strikes and the continuation of labor union militancy during World War II under its Proletarian Military Policy, while the US Communist Party had become an advocate of a no-strike pledge since the Nazi invasion of the USSR. An SWP member edited the Northwest Organizer, the weekly newspaper of the Minneapolis Teamsters, and the local remained militant even as the national union under IBT leader Daniel J. Tobin grew more conservative.

On June 27, 1941, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided the SWP's offices in Minneapolis and St. Paul and seized large quantities of communist literature. Several weeks later, a federal grand jury indicted twenty-eight people, either members of the SWP or Local 544, or both, and charged them with violating the 1861 Sedition Act, which had never before been used, and the Smith Act. The defendants were accused of plotting to overthrow the United States government. The trial began in Federal District Court in Minneapolis on October 27, 1941.

The prosecution relied principally on public statements made by the SWP and its leaders as well as the Communist Manifesto and writings by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. The evidence regarding insubordination of the armed forces consisted of oral testimony by two government witnesses to the effect that one or two defendants had told them that soldiers should be induced to "kick" (complain) about food and living conditions.

Five of the defendants were acquitted on both counts by direction of the judge due to lack of evidence at the conclusion of the prosecution's case. After 56 hours of deliberation, the jury found the twenty-three remaining defendants not guilty of count one of the indictment in which the state charged the accused with violating the 1861 statute by conspiring to overthrow the government by force. The jury found eighteen of the defendants guilty of count two of the indictment, which charged violation of the Smith Act by distributing written material designed to cause insubordination in the armed forces and charged that they had acted to "advocate, abet, advise and teach the duty, necessity, desirability and propriety of overthrowing the government by force and violence."

On December 8, 1941, twelve defendants received 16-month sentences and the remaining eleven received 12-months. After unsuccessful appeals and the refusal of the United States Supreme Court to review the case, those convicted began to serve their sentences on December 31, 1943. The last prisoners were released in February 1945.

The Communist Party supported the trial and conviction of Trotskyists under the Smith Act. Attorney General Francis Biddle later regretted having authorized the prosecution.^[3]

Great Sedition Trial of 1944[link]

The so-called Great Sedition Trial of 1944 followed from a series of indictments issued in Washington, D.C. against a group of some 30 prominent individuals accused of sedition and various related violations of the Smith Act. The defendants were alleged to be part of an international Nazi conspiracy, connected with the activities of the Mothers' Movement. The trial arose out of the strongly isolationist and/or allegedly pro-fascist stance of the heterogeneous group of defendants at the height of US involvement in World War II. The New York Evening Enquirer (later the National Enquirer) and its publisher were also initially charged in 1942, but charges were later dropped.

The trial began April 17, 1944, after a number of attempts by Federal authorities to frame charges robust enough to survive grand jury hearings, but was characterised by an inability on the part of prosecutors to prove specific intent to overthrow the government. Rather, it appears to have consisted of months of the prosecutor, O. John Rogge, reading the writings of the defendants to an increasingly weary jury. A mistrial was declared on November 29, 1944, some time after the death of the trial judge, ex-congressman Edward C. Eicher.

In part because of the abject failure of the trial, which ended "in tragedy and farce," it is notable as one of a number in the US in which the dictates of freedom — especially of certain interpretations of freedom of speech — have been set against concepts of national security. The most obvious comparison, from the immediate post-war era, was that of the congressional hearings arising out of Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist allegations.

Among the defendants in the 1944 trial were: George Sylvester Viereck, Lawrence Dennis, Elizabeth Dilling, William Dudley Pelley, Joe McWilliams, Robert Edward Edmondson, Gerald Winrod, William Griffin, Prescott Freese Dennett, and even in absentia notorious antisemitic publisher and propagandist Ulrich Fleischhauer and his Welt-Dienst/World Service.

Communist Party trials[link]

Members of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) began facing prosecution beginning in 1949 under the law. Over 140 leaders of the CPUSA, including party leader Eugene Dennis, would stand trial during the early days of the Cold War. Prosecutions continued until a string of decisions by the United States Supreme Court threw out numerous convictions under the Smith Act as unconstitutional.

Eleven leaders of the Communist Party were charged under the Smith Act in 1940, including Gil Green, a long-time party leader; Eugene Dennis and Henry Winston, leaders of the national organization; John Gates, editor of the Daily Worker; and Gus Hall, leader of the party in Ohio. The accusation was that "they conspired... to organize as the Communist Party and willfully to advocate and teach the principles of Marxism-Leninism," which was equated with meaning "overthrowing and destroying the government of the United States by force and violence" at some unspecified future time. They were also accused of conspiring to "publish and circulate...books, articles, magazines, and newspapers advocating the principles of Marxism-Leninism." The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels, Lenin's State and Revolution, and Stalin's Foundation of Leninism were introduced as evidence for the prosecution.

After a ten-month trial at the Foley Square Courthouse in Manhattan, ten defendants received sentences of five years and $10,000 fines. An eleventh defendant, Robert G. Thompson – a distinguished hero of the Second World War – was sentenced to three years in consideration of his wartime service.^[4] All the defense attorneys, including future Congressman George W. Crockett, were cited for contempt of court and given prison sentences.

The convicted Communists appealed the verdicts, but the Supreme Court upheld their convictions in 1951 in Dennis v. United States by a vote of 6-2, with Justices Hugo Black and William O. Douglas dissenting. Black wrote that the government's indictment was "a virulent form of prior censorship of speech and press" and a violation of the First Amendment.^[5]

In 1951, twenty-three other party leaders were indicted, including Claudia Jones and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union. By 1957, over 140 leaders and members of the Communist Party had been charged.^{[citation needed]}

The end of prosecutions[link]

The indictments and trials ended in 1957 as the result of a series of Supreme Court decisions. Yates v. United States ruled unconstitutional the convictions of numerous party leaders in a ruling that distinguished between advocacy of an idea for incitement and the teaching of an idea as a concept. The Court ruled 6-1 in Watkins v. United States that defendants could use the First Amendment as a defense against "abuses of the legislative process."^[6]

On June 5, 1961, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld by 5-4 the conviction of Junius Scales under the "membership clause" of the Smith Act. Scales began serving a six-year sentence on October 2, 1961. He was released after serving fifteen months when President John F. Kennedy commuted his sentence in 1962.^[7]

See also[link]

• Smith Act trials

Footnotes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Dalton Trumbo, The Devil in the Book. Los Angeles, CA: California Emergency Defense Committee, 1956.

External links[link]

• About the Smith Act Trials
• Maintenance of National Security and the First Amendment detailed discussion of the Smith Act's legal history
• Alien Registration Act Spartacus article
• Text of the Smith Act
• Dennis v United States (1951) Summary of the Supreme Court's ruling upholding the Smith Act
• Dennis v. United States Documents from the Supreme Court hearing.
• Yates v. United States (1957) Summary of the Supreme Court's 1957 decision on the Smith Act
• Yates v United States Documents
• A Mockery of Justice – The Great Sedition Trial of 1944

See also[link]

• Sedition
• Cold war
• Hatch Act of 1939
• McCarthyism
• Second Red Scare
• Robert Klonsky
• Communist registration acts
• Gitlow v. New York —Supreme Court decision that state law can prohibit advocating violent overthrow of the U.S. government.

Willow Smith
Willow Smith at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Concert. (Photo: Harry Wad)
Background information
Birth name	Willow Camille Reign Smith
Also known as	Willow
Born	(2000-10-31) October 31, 2000 (age 11) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres	R&B, pop, dance-pop
Occupations	Actress, singer
Years active	2007–present
Labels	StarRoc/Roc Nation
Associated acts	Will Smith Jaden Smith Jada Pinkett-Smith
Website	www.willowsmith.com

Willow Camille Reign Smith (born October 31, 2000), often known simply as Willow, is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, and the younger sister of Jaden Smith. Smith made her acting debut in 2007 in the film I Am Legend and later appeared in Kit Kittredge: An American Girl alongside Abigail Breslin. She received a Young Artist Award for her performance.

Apart from her acting she launched a music career in the fall of 2010 with the release of her singles "Whip My Hair", "21st Century Girl", and signing to her current mentor Jay-Z's record label Roc Nation. "Whip My Hair" peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. The video was nominated for Video of the Year at the BET Awards of 2011.^[1]

Personal life[link]

Smith is the daughter of musician-actor Will Smith and actress Jada Pinkett Smith. She has an older half-brother, Trey Smith, and an older brother, Jaden Smith; both are also child actors. Smith is African-American, and also has West Indian, Creole, and Portuguese-Jewish ancestry on her mother's side. Smith and her brothers are youth ambassadors for Project Zambia, which provides assistance for Zambian children orphaned by AIDS in conjunction with Hasbro.^[2][3]

Acting career[link]

Smith made her acting debut in I Am Legend alongside her father.^[4] Her next film, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl,^[5] was released on July 2, 2008.

On January 20, 2011, Will Smith announced he is planning to produce a remake of the famous comic strip Little Orphan Annie starring Smith in the title role. Jay-Z is also in talks to provide the music for the film and possibly create brand new songs.^[6]

Music career[link]

[edit] 2010-present: Knees and Elbows

In June 2010, Smith's mother Jada Pinkett Smith announced in an interview on Lopez Tonight that Smith would be releasing an album. Smith then released her first single, "Whip My Hair", which went platinum in the US and peaked at number 11. In the UK the single peaked a number 2. Smith soon after announced her next single, "21st Century Girl". After she performed the song on The Oprah Winfrey Show, she released it the next day on February 3, 2011. The video was released March 9, 2011.^[7] The single had poor chart performance both in the US and UK.

On October 6, 2011, "Fireball", a collaboration between Smith and rapper Nicki Minaj, was released. However "Fireball" was a commercial failure, failing to chart in any type of music market, and her first song to miss the Billboard Hot 100. Smith's producer announced that they are almost finished working on her debut album, Willow: You Think You Know Me, and it should be done soon. He also said it has a similar style to "Whip My Hair". He confirmed that the next single would be "Rock Star". The title of the album was later announced to be Knees and Elbows.^[8] It will be released around April 2012.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Knees and Elbows (2012)

Singles[link]

Music videos[link]

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Willow Smith on Myspace
• Willow Smith at the Internet Movie Database

Will Smith
Smith in 2011
Born	Willard Christopher Smith, Jr. (1968-09-25) September 25, 1968 (age 43) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Other names	The Fresh Prince
Occupation	Actor, producer, rapper
Years active	1985–1993, 1997–2005 (rapping), 1990–present (acting)
Spouse	Sheree Zampino (m. 1992–1995) «start: (1992)–end+1: (1996)»"Marriage: Sheree Zampino to Will Smith" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Will_Smith) Jada Pinkett Smith (m. 1997) «start: (1997)»"Marriage: Jada Pinkett Smith to Will Smith" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Will_Smith)
Children	Trey Smith Jaden Smith Willow Smith
Website
www.willsmith.com

Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. (born September 25, 1968),^[1] also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood.^[2] Smith has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, two Academy Awards, and has won multiple Grammy Awards.

In the late 1980s, Smith achieved modest fame as a rapper under the name The Fresh Prince. In 1990, his popularity increased dramatically when he starred in the popular television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The show ran for nearly six years (1990–1996) on NBC and has been syndicated consistently on various networks since then. In the mid-1990s, Smith moved from television to film, and ultimately starred in numerous blockbuster films. He is the only actor to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office and the only one to have eight consecutive films in which he starred open at #1 spot in the domestic box office tally.^[3]

Fourteen of the nineteen fiction films he has acted in have accumulated worldwide gross earnings of over $100 million, and four took in over $500 million in global box office receipts. As of 2011, his films have grossed $5.7 billion in global box office.^[4] His most financially successful films have been Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Independence Day, Men in Black, Men in Black II, I, Robot, I Am Legend, Hancock, Wild Wild West, Enemy of the State, Shark Tale, Hitch and Seven Pounds. He also earned critical praise for his performances in Six Degrees of Separation, Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness, receiving Best Actor Oscar nominations for the latter two.

Family and early life[link]

Born and raised in the Wynnefield section of West Philadelphia, Smith also lived in Germantown in Northwest Philadelphia. His mother, Caroline (née Bright), was a school administrator who worked for the Philadelphia school board, and his father, Willard Christopher Smith, Sr., was a refrigeration engineer.^[5][6] He was raised Baptist.^[7] His parents separated when he was thirteen,^[8] and did not actually divorce until around 2000.^[9]

It is untrue, though widely reported, that Smith turned down a scholarship to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); he never applied to the school,^[10] although he was admitted to a "pre-engineering program" there.^[9] According to Smith, "My mother, who worked for the School Board of Philadelphia, had a friend who was the admissions officer at MIT. I had pretty high SAT scores and they needed black kids, so I probably could have gotten in. But I had no intention of going to college."^[11]

Recording and acting career[link]

Smith at the Emmy Awards in 1993

Early work (1985–1995)[link]

Smith started as the MC of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, with his childhood friend Jeffrey "DJ Jazzy Jeff" Townes as turntablist and producer,^[12] as well as Ready Rock C (Clarence Holmes) as the human beat box. The trio was known for performing humorous, radio-friendly songs, most notably "Parents Just Don't Understand" and "Summertime".^[12] They gained critical acclaim and won the first Grammy awarded in the Rap category (1988).^[12]

Smith had a line in "Voices That Care", a 1991 Persian Gulf War song by a celebrity group. Smith spent money freely during his early career and underpaid his income taxes.^[12] The Internal Revenue Service eventually assessed a $2.8 million tax debt against Smith, took many of his possessions, and garnished his income.^[13] Smith was nearly bankrupt in 1990, when the NBC television network signed him to a contract and built a sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, around him.^[12]

The show was successful and began his acting career. Smith set for himself the goal of becoming "the biggest movie star in the world," studying box office successes' common characteristics.^[8] His first major roles were in the drama Six Degrees of Separation (1993) and the action film Bad Boys (1995) which he starred opposite of Martin Lawrence.

Breakthrough (1996–2000)[link]

In 1996, Smith starred as part of an ensemble cast in Roland Emmerich's Independence Day. The film was a massive blockbuster, becoming the second highest grossing film in history at the time and establishing Smith as a prime box office draw.^[14] He later struck gold again in the summer of 1997 alongside Tommy Lee Jones in the summer hit Men in Black playing Agent J. In 1998, Smith starred with Gene Hackman in Enemy of the State.^[12]

He turned down the role of Neo in The Matrix in favor of Wild Wild West (1999). Despite the disappointment of Wild Wild West, Smith has said that he harbors no regrets about his decision, asserting that Keanu Reeves's performance as Neo was superior to what Smith himself would have achieved.^[15] Though in interviews subsequent to the release of Wild Wild West he stated that he "made a mistake on Wild Wild West. That could have been better."^[16]

2001–present[link]

Smith in September 2009

In 2005, Smith was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for attending a record breaking three premieres in a 24-hour time span.^[17]

He has planned to star in a feature film remake of the television series It Takes a Thief.^[18]

On December 10, 2007, Smith was recognized at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Smith left an imprint of his hands and feet outside the world renowned theater in front of many fans.^[19] Later that month, Smith starred in the film I Am Legend, released December 14, 2007. Despite marginally positive reviews,^[20] its opening was the largest ever for a film released in the United States during December. Smith himself has said that he considers the film to be "aggressively unique".^[21] A reviewer said that the film's commercial success "cemented [Smith's] standing as the number one box office draw in Hollywood."^[22] On December 1, 2008, TV Guide reported that Smith has been selected as one of America’s top ten most fascinating people of 2008 for a Barbara Walters ABC special that aired on December 4, 2008.^[23]

Smith is currently developing a film entitled The Last Pharaoh, in which he will star as Taharqa.^[24]

President Barack Obama has stated that if a film were to ever be made about his life, he would have Smith play his part, because "he has the ears". Obama stated that the two have discussed a possibility of a film based on the 2008 election, but this may not happen until the end of the Obama presidency.^[25]

Men in Black III opened on May 25, 2012. In it, Smith will play Agent J for the third time, being one of his more popular earlier roles coincides with the fact that it will be his first major starring role in four years.

On August 19, 2011, it was announced^[26] that Smith had returned to the studio with producer La Mar Edwards to make a new album. Edwards has worked with artists such as T.I., Chris Brown, and Game.

Smith and his son, Jaden, are currently filming After Earth, which is set for a 2013 release.

Personal life[link]

Nobel Peace Prize Concert December 11, 2009, in Oslo, Norway: Smith with wife Jada and children Jaden and Willow

Smith was raised by his parents in West Philadelphia. Smith credits his father's dedication when discussing his involvement in the lives of his own children: "I look at my father and how he was able to keep four kids fed and clothed and still managed to find time to spend with us."^[27] Smith married Sheree Zampino in 1992. They had a son, Willard Christopher Smith III, also known as "Trey", but divorced in 1995. Trey appeared in his father's music video for the 1998 single "Just the Two of Us".

Smith married actress Jada Pinkett in 1997. Together they have had two children: Jaden Christopher Syre (born 1998), his co-star in The Pursuit of Happyness, and Willow Camille Reign (born 2000), who appeared as his daughter in I Am Legend. Along with his brother, Harry Smith, he owns Treyball Development Inc.,^[28] a Beverly Hills-based company named after his first son. Smith and his family reside on Star Island in Miami Beach, Florida and in Los Angeles, Stockholm, Sweden^[29] and Philadelphia.

Smith was consistently listed in Fortune Magazine's "Richest 40" list of the forty wealthiest Americans under the age of 40. He donated $4,600 to the presidential campaign of Democrat Barack Obama.^[30] On December 11, 2009, Smith and his wife hosted the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway, when Obama had won the prize.^[31]

Smith has said he has studied multiple religions, including Scientology, and he has said many complimentary things about Scientology and other faiths. Despite his praise of Scientology, Smith said "I just think a lot of the ideas in Scientology are brilliant and revolutionary and non-religious"^[32][33] and "Ninety-eight percent of the principles in Scientology are identical to the principles of the Bible.... I don't think that because the word someone uses for spirit is 'thetan' that the definition becomes any different."^[34] He has denied having joined the Church of Scientology, saying "I am a Christian. I am a student of all religions, and I respect all people and all paths."^[35]

Smith gave $1.3 million to charities in 2007, of which $450,000 went to two Christian ministries, and $122,500 went to three Scientology organizations; the remaining beneficiaries included "a Los Angeles mosque, other Christian-based schools and churches, and [...] the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Center in Israel".^[36] Smith and his wife have also founded a private elementary school in Calabasas, California, the New Village Leadership Academy, which uses Study Technology, a teaching methodology developed by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.^[37] Federal tax filing showed that Will Smith donated $1.2 million to the school in 2010.^[38]

In 2012 he expressed support for the legalizing of same-sex marriage, in an endorsement of president Barack Obama's declaration to adopt this stance on the issue.^[39]

Discography[link]

With DJ Jazzy Jeff[link]

• Rock the House (1987)
• He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper (1988)
• And in This Corner... (1989)
• Homebase (1991)
• Code Red (1993)

Solo[link]

• Big Willie Style (1997)
• Willennium (1999)
• Born to Reign (2002)
• Lost and Found (2005)

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Film[link]

Box office grosses[link]

References[link]