w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m
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In 2006, Governor
Schwitzer pardons the
convicts posthumusly.
counterpart, a section of the Espionage Act, was
strengthened by an amendment that copied Mon-
tana's law almost word for word.
Under the federal law, more than 1,500 dis-
sidents, including Socialist presidential candidate
Eugene Debs, were imprisoned. Debs' appeal to
the Supreme Court was denied, as were others',
but growing doubts by Justices Oliver Wendell
Holmes Jr. and Louis D. Brandeis eventually led
to a much more robust interpretation of the First
Amendment, giving more breathing room for
dissent. But that more enlightened thinking was
far too late for the Montana sedition prisoners and
their national counterparts.
In 2006, however, law and journalism students at
the University of Montana, guided by law profes-
sor Jeff Renz and me, and motivated to action by
the horrific unfairness of the convictions, success-
fully petitioned Gov. Brian Schweitzer to post-
humously pardon the ex-convicts. Descendants
gathered from across the country in the Capitol
Rotunda on May 3, 2006, to gain closure as the
governor signed each individual petition and
said "I'm sorry" to each relative. With this act of
redemption and redress, the governor liberated
them and their descendants, and all of us, from
the shame of their unjust convictions.
