Sedition and Espionage Acts Reference library
Scott Henkel
The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Business, Labor, and Economic History
...of having opposed the war and supported the Bolshevik revolution. The Espionage Act of 1917 changed the legal definition of “espionage”: the term had previously been defined as sharing secrets with an enemy, but the new law defined the term as “false statements” that would discourage the war effort. The Espionage Act made it illegal to convey information “to cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty in the military.” The Sedition Act of 1918 codified limitations on unpatriotic speech by stating that “whoever, when...
