Lawrence Lessig has invited Geoffrey Stone to guest blog until Saturday while he’s away in Italy working on Creative Commons stuff.

Geoff is a professor of law at the University of Chicago, and author of “Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from The Sedition Act of 1798 to The War on Terrorism“.

So far, Geoff has been writing about the “Alien and Sedition Acts“, which were passed by the John Adams administration in 1798.

The Sedition Act effectively made it a crime for any person to criticize the President, the Congress or the Government of the United States. The Republicans vehemently object that the Act violated the First Amendment; the Federalists argued that in time of war it was essential to stifle criticism of the government because if the People lost confidence in the government they would not make the sacrifices war demands.

From there, he goes on to discussing dissent in general, and how it affects the moral of a nation and it’s enemies during a time of war. Instead of ignoring the possible negative results of free speech in a nation at war, he clearly acknowledges that it can sustain the morale of the enemy.

Dissent in wartime may improve the quality of decisionmaking, but it may also and at the same time strengthen the enemy’s resolve. An enemy that knows we are divided and uncertain will fight harder than it we are united and resolute. It knows that even if it cannot win militarily, it might win (or at least obtain a more favorable settlement) because of domestic American politics. Thus, for those Americans who are firmly committed to the war, dissenters are acting treasonably because they are encouraging the enemy and arguably putting American lives at risk. Their response to dissenters is essentially, “Can’t you see what you’re doing? You’re jeopardizing American soldiers! Just shut up!”

I’m very curious to see how he will conclude his miniseries of miniessays. I highly recommend taking the time to read Professor Stone’s series.