It took just two words to land Polish immigrant Ben Kahn in prison for nearly three years during World War I.
The 38-year-old traveling liquor salesman called wartime food regulations a "big joke" while talking with the owner of a southern Montana hotel while waiting for breakfast in March 1918.
By lunchtime, he had been arrested for violating Montana's Sedition Act and, less than a month later, was in prison in Deer Lodge, serving a sentence of 7 1/2 to 20 years. An armistice ended the war later that year, but Kahn would sit in prison for almost three more years.
Nearly 90 years later, law students at the University of Montana are combing old court records and archive collections across the state to clear Kahn and 73 other Montanans convicted of sedition in 1918 and 1919.
The effort, known as the "Montana Sedition Project," was sparked by "Darkest Before Dawn: Sedition and Free Speech in the American West," a new book by Clem Work, a University of Montana journalism professor. Seven law students are taking another look at the cases, and hope to prepare pardon petitions for Gov. Brian Schweitzer this spring. . . .
"[T]he sedition law has no place in our society today," said one of the law students, Jason Lazark, 28, of Sebastapol, California. "It's unconstitutional and was found to be that way. People who were convicted under that statute should be vindicated. And if they're not alive, the family name should be vindicated."
Details here from the AP via FindLaw.com. Or visit The Montana Sedition Project directly. It's worth a look.