Espionage Act of 1917

• Espionage Act of 1917

One of the most controversial laws ever passed in the United States, the Espionage Act of 1917 (ch. 30, tit. I § 3, 40 Stat. 217, 21...

• West's Encyclopedia of American Law
• Dou–Fre

• The President Versus the First Amendment ; the Adminstration's Intent to Prosecute Journalists Undermines Our Democracy.

The the Espionage Act of 1917 was created to prosecute spies, not reporters. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, however, is threatening to refashion the law as a weapon against journalists who reveal the existence of questionable anti-terror programs.

• Portland Press Herald
• May 24, 2006

• George Bush: Recidivist

On Dec 16, 2005, New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau broke a front-page story, "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts," that won them a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting--and an investigation by the Justice Department for possible unlawful releasing of classified information that may ultimately include charges of violating the 1917 Espionage Act. Hentoff details the 43-page decision in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, Anna Diggs Taylor, an alumna of the civil rights movement and the first black judge to sit on that Michigan federal court.

• Village Voice, The
• August 11, 2009

• United States ex rel. Eichenlaub v. Shaughnessy, 338 U.S. 521 (1950)

... of a conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act of 1917. Thereafter, in a denaturalization pro...

• U.S. Supreme Court

• Newly Released Documents Show Preferential Treatment for Israeli Lobby

In 2005, Colonel Lawrence Franklin was indicted alongside two executives of AIPAC for allegedly violating the 1917 Espionage Act. Franklin later pled guilty to passing AIPAC a classified presidential directive and other secrets concerning America's Iran policy. Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman of AIPAC allegedly forwarded the highly sensitive information to Israeli government officials and select members of Washington's media establishment. This covert leaking appears to be one of many AIPAC tactics designed to encourage tougher U.S. policies toward Iran, from financial boycotts to naval blockades and possibly even military strikes. Federal, state and local law enforcement officials may request a complimentary hard copy of "America's Defense Line" by sending their agency's mailing addres...

• Arab American News, The
• August 28, 2009

• Section 8: Powers of Congress

...New, 243 U.S. 332 (1917), a congressional settlement of a threatened rail ... material in contravention of the Espionage Act of 1917, the claim of absolute power in Congre...

• Constitution of the United States (Annotated)

• WikiLeaks and the institutional framework for national security disclosures.

...Substantive Scope of the Espionage Act b. First Amendment Considerations 3. The Premi... telegram claimed that the Espionage Act of 1917, as amended, prohibited publication of the materia...

• Yale Law Journal
• Vol. 121 Nbr. 6, April 2012

• Rosenberg v. United States, 346 U.S. 273 (1953)

... to death for conspiring to violate the Espionage Act of 1917 by communicating to a foreign governme...

• U.S. Supreme Court

• Associational speech.

... free speech jurisprudence in the 1919 Espionage Act cases, (9) with the Court's famous decision in... prosecutions (under the Espionage Act of 1917) of opponents of U.S. entry into World War I. In o...

• Yale Law Journal
• Vol. 120 Nbr. 5, March 2011

• Is Julian Assange a Journalist? For First Amendment purposes, it doesn't matter.

... to use in prosecuting Assange is the Espionage Act of 1917, which makes it a crime, punishable by...

• Reason
• Vol. 42 Nbr. 11, April 2011