The Espionage Act of 1917 was a United States federal law passed shortly after entering World War I, on June 15, 1917, which made it a crime for a person to convey information with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies. It was punishable by a maximum $USD 10,000 fine (almost $170,000 in today's dollars) and 20 years in prison. The legislation was passed at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson, who feared any widespread dissent in time of war, thinking that it constituted a real threat to an American victory. The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal Law of the United States. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... The armed forces of the United States of America consist of the United States Army United States Navy United States Air Force United States Marine Corps United States Coast Guard Note: The United States Coast Guard has both military and law enforcement functions. ... “USD” redirects here. ... Legislation (or statutory law) is law which has been promulgated (or enacted) by a legislature or other governing body. ... Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856–February 3, 1924), was the twenty-eighth President of the United States. ... Dissent is a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to an idea (eg. ... For other uses, see War (disambiguation). ...

Enforcement of the Act

A year after the Act's passage, Eugene V. Debs, Socialist Party presidential candidate in 1904, 1908, and 1912 was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison for making a speech that "obstructed recruiting". He ran for president again in 1920 from prison. He was pardoned by President Warren G. Harding after serving nearly 3 years.^[1] Publications which the Wilson Administration determined were guilty of violating the Act "were subject to being deprived of mailing privilege, a blow to most periodicals," according to Sidney Kobre's book Development of American Journalism. A section of the Act allowed the Postmaster General to declare all letters, circulars, newspapers, pamphlets, and other materials that violated the Act to be unmailable. As a result, about 75 newspapers either lost their mailing privileges or were pressured to print nothing more about World War I between June 1917 and May 1918. Among the publications which were censored as a result of the Act were two Socialist Party daily newspapers New York Call and Milwaukee Leader. The editor of the latter, Victor Berger, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment after being convicted on a charge of conspiracy to violate the Act. This was later appealed on a technicality. Other publications banned from the mails were the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) journal Solidarity, American Socialist, bohemian radical magazine The Masses, German-American or German-language newspapers, pacifist publications, and Irish nationalist publications (such as Jeremiah O'Leary's Bull). Eugene Victor Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American labor and political leader, one of the founders of the International Labor Union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five-time Socialist Party of America candidate for President of the United States. ... The Socialist Party of America (SPA) is a socialist political party in the United States. ... Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was an American politician and the twenty-ninth President of the United States, from 1921 to 1923, when he became the sixth president to die in office. ... The United States Postmaster General is the executive head of the United States Postal Service. ... Victor Luitpold Berger (February 28, 1860 - August 7, 1929) was a United States politician and a founding member of the Socialist Party of America. ... The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies) is an international union currently headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. At its peak in 1923 the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. ... June 1914 issue of The Masses. ... Jeremiah OLeary (d. ...

The Act in the courts

The laws were ruled to be compliant with the United States Constitution in the United States Supreme Court case Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919). Schenck, an anti-war Socialist, had been convicted of violating the Act, after he published a pamphlet urging resistance to the World War I draft. Although Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes joined the Court majority in upholding Schenck's conviction in 1919, he also introduced the theory that punishment in such cases can only be limited to political expression which constitutes a "clear and present danger" to the government action at issue. Wikisource has original text related to this article: The United States Constitution The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. ... The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States... Holding Defendants criticism of the draft was not protected by the First Amendment, because it created a clear and present danger to the enlistment and recruiting practices of the U.S. armed forces during a state of war. ... Court citation is a standard system used in common law countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia to uniquely identify the location of past court cases in special series of books called reporters. ... The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal law of the United States. ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. ... Clear and present danger is a term used by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. ...

Later court decisions have cast serious doubt upon the constitutionality of the Espionage Act, including Brandenburg v. Ohio (which changed the "clear and present danger" test derived from Schenck to the "imminent lawless action" test), New York Times Co. v. United States, and United States v. The Progressive, Inc., although none of these decisions directly overruled it. Holding Ohios criminal syndicalism statute violated the First Amendment, as applied to the state through the Fourteenth, because it broadly prohibited the mere advocacy of violence rather than the constitutionally unprotected incitement to imminent lawless action. ... Imminent lawless action is a term used in the United States Supreme Court case Brandenburg v. ... Holding In order to exercise prior restraint, the Government must show sufficient evidence that the publication would cause a “grave and irreparable” danger. ... The cover of the November 1979 The Progressive which the United States Department of Energy attempted to censor. ...

Changes to the Act

The law was later extended by the Sedition Act of 1918, which made it illegal to speak out against the government. The Sedition Act of 1918 was an amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917 passed at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson, who was concerned any widespread dissent in time of war constituted a real threat to an American victory. ...

During and after World War I, the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act were used in some prosecutions that would be considered constitutionally unacceptable in today's United States, even in the political climate after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York's World Trade Center. While many of the laws were repealed in 1921, major portions of the Espionage Act remain part of United States law (18 USC 793, 794). The libel decision of New York Times Company v. Sullivan (1964), by granting enhanced protection to criticism of public figures, including government officials, largely eliminated what remained of the crime of sedition in the United States. [1] A sequential look at United Flight 175 crashing into the south tower of the World Trade Center The September 11, 2001 attacks (often referred to as 9/11—pronounced nine eleven or nine one one) consisted of a series of coordinated terrorist[1] suicide attacks upon the United States, predominantly... For other uses, see World Trade Center (disambiguation). ... A repeal is the removal or reversal of a law. ... Holding The First Amendment, as applied through the Fourteenth, protected a newspaper from being sued for libel in state court for making false defamatory statements about the official conduct of a public official, because the statements were not made with knowing or reckless disregard for the truth. ... Sedition is a term of law which refers to covert conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority as tending toward insurrection against the established order. ...

The United States Congress has enacted other laws to protect specific types of information including: Type Bicameral Houses Senate House of Representatives President of the Senate President pro tempore Dick Cheney, (R) since January 20, 2001 Robert C. Byrd, (D) since January 4, 2007 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, (D) since January 4, 2007 Members 535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner Political...

• cryptographic intelligence and methods - 18 USC 798
• nuclear weapons and materials (Restricted Data) - Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 USC 2162, 2163, 2168, and 7383)
• industrial trade secrets - Industrial Espionage Act of 1996 (18 USC Chapter 90)
• intelligence sources and methods (Wnintel) - in particular the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (50 USC 421–426)
• data stored on computers - Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 USC 1030) and the Stored Communications Act (18 USC 2701)
• patient medical records (HIPAA)
• video tape rental and sale records — Video Privacy Protection Act — (18 USC 2710)

Note that all of the aforementioned acts either are related to very personal and private data (such as health records) or, when related to records of government activities, they prohibit unlawful disclosure of a secret by someone lawfully privy to the secret in question; unlike the Espionage Act, they do not prohibit disclosure by someone who merely obtained the secret (i.e. whom the secret was leaked to) from someone lawfully privy to it. The German Lorenz cipher machine, used in World War II for encryption of very high-level general staff messages Cryptography (or cryptology; derived from Greek κρυπτός kryptós hidden, and the verb γράφω gráfo write or λεγειν legein to speak) is the study of message secrecy. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 kilometers (11 mi) above the hypocenter A nuclear weapon derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions of fusion or fission. ... Almost a year after World War II ended, Congress established the United States Atomic Energy Commission to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. ... A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information used by a business to obtain an advantage over competitors within the same industry or profession. ... The Industrial Espionage Act of 1996 was introduced on August 27, 1996. ... SPY may refer to: SPY (spiders), ticker symbol for Standard & Poors Depository Receipts SPY (magazine), a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps SPY (Ivory Coast), airport code for San Pédro, Côte dIvoire SPY (Ship Planning Yard), a U.S. Navy acronym SPY, short for MOWAG SPY, a... The Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 (PL97-200, 50 U.S. Code Secs. ... Thedjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is a law passed by the United States Congress in 1986 intended to reduce hacking of computer systems. ... Medical records refer to records, either in paper or electronic form, of the results of medical tests, diagnoses and treatments for individuals. ... The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996. ... The video cassette recorder (or VCR, less popularly video tape recorder) is a type of video tape recorder that uses removable cassettes containing magnetic tape to record audio and video from a television broadcast so it can be played back later. ... The Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) was passed into law in 1988 as Public Law 100-618. ...

References

1. ^ Davis, Kenneth C. (2004). Don't Know Much About History, Revised ed., New York: Perennial, 314. ISBN 0-06-008382-4. 

Kenneth C. Davis is the author of books such as Dont Know Much About History and Dont Know Much About Geography. ... HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by Rupert Murdochs News Corporation. ...

See also

• Alien and Sedition Acts
• Executive Order 13292 Classified National Security Information
• Freedom of Information Act (United States)
• History and background of New York Times Co. v. United States
• Official Secrets Act (U.K. and others)
• Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten
• Security clearance

======== many recent edits that had nothing to do with article. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with freedom of information legislation. ... Floyd Abrams This article reviews the history and background of . ... Official Secrets Act warning sign, Foulness. ... “UK” redirects here. ... 244 F. 535, (S.D.N.Y. 1917), is a First Amendment case decided in 1917 that addressed advocacy of law violation. ... A security clearance is a status granted to individuals, typically members of the military and employees of governments and their contractors, allowing them access to classified information, i. ...

External links

• United States Code (USC)
• Full Text of the original (1917) US Espionage Act
• United States v. Morison, a 1985 ruling that leaks to the press of classified information by government officials are prosecutable under 18 USC 793(d). The court specifically found that there is no need under this law to show any "evil purpose."
• Seymour Stedman, a Chicago attorney, who defended Eugene V. Debs and Rose Pastor Stokes on Espionage Act violations during WWI
• The United States v. Rose Pastor Stokes (1918)
• 2005 Federal Indictment of Lewis Libby (Page 2, section b)
• Repression against the IWW