Wisconsin’s 1918 Special Election for Senate and the Trial of Victor Berger

Berger was more successful that November, running for and regaining the Milwaukee Congressional seat he had held from 1911 to 1913. Before Berger was seated, however, his espionage trial began. In the trial, presided over by an obviously antagonistic Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Berger was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Congress refused to seat Berger and declared his seat open. In a subsequent special election held on December 19, 1919, Berger won again, drawing 6500 additional votes, but Congress again refused to seat him. The seat remained open. A year later, perhaps frustrated with having no voice at all in Congress, Milwaukee voters chose Berger’s long-time rival, moderate Republican William H. Stafford.

In 1921 the United States Supreme Court voided Berger’s conviction on the grounds that Judge Landis, who had publicly made anti-German and anti-Socialist remarks, should have excused himself from the case. Berger commented, “I hail this decision as the first real sign of returning sanity in our ruling class.” He continued, “I have proven my love for America, my faith in America’s justice, by risking my liberty in defense of the constitutional right of all American citizens to discuss freely and fully the official acts and policies of their public servants.”

Berger defeated Stafford in the 1922 elections and served in Congress from 1923 to 1929, where he continued to champion civil liberties.

This story was edited and adapted from Dave Driscoll‘s original Curators’ Favorites article.