In Dennis v United States, 341 U.S. 494 (1951) the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the convictions of the petitioners for violating the conspiracy provisions of the Smith Act by organizing a group to plot the violent overthrow of the government. The Court found that the evidence established that the petitioners were leaders of a "highly organized conspiracy, with rigidly disciplined members" ready to make the attempt to overthrow the government by force and violence (341 US at 511). Concluding that the petitioner's actions created a "clear and present danger" of the evil the statute was aimed to prevent, the Court held that the Smith Act, as applied to the petitioners, did not violate their First Amendment rights (id. at 511). The Court ruled that even though no attempted overthrow had yet occurred, "the words clear and present danger cannot mean that before the Government may act, it must wait until the putsch is about to be executed, the plans have been laid and the signal is awaited ... . "If the ingredients of the reaction are present, we cannot bind the Government to wait until the catalyst is added" (id. at 509, 511).