More than a century ago, a California businessman produced a fervently patriotic film called "The Spirit of '76" — set, as one might guess, during the American Revolution.

But the federal government quickly banned this flag-waving silent movie in 1917. During this period, amid the U.S. involvement in World War I, under President Woodrow Wilson, many peoples' liberties were abridged across the nation.

The authorities decided the film's scenes portraying horrid wartime atrocities by the British Redcoats, more than 140 years earlier, could subvert our support for Britain's efforts against Germany.

And Robert Goldstein, a costume supplier by trade who produced and co-wrote the film, was sentenced to a shocking 10 years in prison after his conviction under the Espionage Act of 1917.

Any July 4 would be a good time to remember this case as a warning of how criminalizing and chilling public speech and opinion can boomerang into a kind of........

© Newsday