| Espionage Act Of 1917 |
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Publications which the Wilson Administration determined were guilty of violating the 1917 Espionage Act "were subject to being deprived of mailing privilege, a blow to most periodicals," according to Sidney Kobre's ''Development of American Journalism'' book. A section of the Espionage Act allowed the Postmaster General to declare all letters, circulars, newspapers, pamphlet books and other materials that violated the Act to be unmailable. As a result of the Espionage Act, 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 in this way as a result of the Espionage Act were two Socialist Party daily newspapers: the ''New York Call'' and the ''Milwaukee Leader''. The editor of the ''Milwaukee Leader''--Victor Berger--was also sentenced to 20 years imprisonment after being convicted on a charge of conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act. The Industrial Workers of the World {Link without Title} 's ''Solidarity'' journal, as well as the ''American Socialist'' and ''The Masses'' bohemian radical magazine, were also banned from the mails under the terms of the Espionage Act. German-American or German-American language newspapers, pacifist publications and Irish nationalist publications like Jeremiah O'Leary's ''Bull'' were also banned from the mails as a result of the Espionage Act. 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 Espionage 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. The law was later extended by the Sedition Act Of 1918 , which made it illegal to speak out against the government. During and after World War I, the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act were used in prosecutions that would be considered constitutionally unacceptable in the U.S., 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 Sullivan v. New York Times (1964), by granting special protection to criticism of public officials, largely eliminated what remained of the crime of Sedition in the United States. {Link without Title} The United States Congress has enacted other laws to protect specific types of information including:
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