Also the Supreme Court case Yates v. United States, 354 US 298 (1957) helped define when free speech should be limited. In this case 14 people, members of the Communist Party USA in California, were charged with violating the Smith Act, but they argued that simply advocating a change in government was not the same as actively attempting to overthrow the government. The Supreme Court ruled that the Smith Act did not prohibit “the defense of forcible overthrow of government as an abstract doctrine.” In other words, it was not a violation of the First Amendment to support doctrines, but it would be a violation to use free speech to support immediate calls to violent action. These three Supreme Court cases show a consistent theme of limiting free speech when necessary to prevent harm to the general public, or in some cases, the government, or both, and support the idea that free speech, as protected by the first amendment, is limited in scope and is