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The founding document as written, a plain overview of the seven Articles, and a glossary of archaic and legal terms.
National Security & Civil Liberties
Espionage Act
Enacted: 1917
Woodrow Wilson
Criminalized interference with military recruitment or the transmission of information hurtful to national defense — the statute at issue in Schenck v. United States.
Signed by Woodrow Wilson on June 15, 1917, two months after the U.S. entered World War I, the Espionage Act criminalized interference with military recruitment, insubordination in the armed forces, and the transmission of information helpful to a foreign adversary. The Act was used prolifically to prosecute wartime dissenters — including Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs — and formed the basis of the Supreme Court's early free-speech decisions in Schenck v. United States (1919) and Abrams v. United States (1919). The Sedition Act of 1918 (soon repealed) added even broader prohibitions on 'disloyal' speech. Portions of the 1917 Espionage Act remain in force and have been invoked in modern leak prosecutions.