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127-532: The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I . It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code (War & National Defense) but is now found under Title 18 (Crime & Criminal Procedure): 18 U.S.C. ch. 37 ( 18 U.S.C. § 792 et seq.). It
254-565: A Winnipeg newspaper described as "seditious and antiwar statements" and described by Attorney General Gregory as dangerous propaganda. On June 21 seven of the directors, including Rutherford, were sentenced to the maximum 20 years' imprisonment for each of four charges, to be served concurrently. They served nine months in the Atlanta Penitentiary before being released on bail at the order of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis . In April 1919, an appeal court ruled they had not had
381-401: A jury , and aggressive pretrial "law and motion" practice designed to result in a pretrial disposition (that is, summary judgment ) or a settlement. U.S. courts pioneered the concept of the opt-out class action , by which the burden falls on class members to notify the court that they do not wish to be bound by the judgment, as opposed to opt-in class actions, where class members must join into
508-636: A " clear and present danger " to the government action at issue. Holmes' opinion is the origin of the notion that speech equivalent to "falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater " is not protected by the First Amendment. Justice Holmes began to doubt his decision due to criticism from free speech advocates. He also met the Harvard Law professor Zechariah Chafee and discussed his criticism of Schenck . Later in 1919, in Abrams v. United States ,
635-548: A British classic or two, a famous old case, or a nod to Blackstone ; but current British law almost never gets any mention." Foreign law has never been cited as binding precedent, but as a reflection of the shared values of Anglo-American civilization or even Western civilization in general. Federal law originates with the Constitution, which gives Congress the power to enact statutes for certain limited purposes like regulating interstate commerce . The United States Code
762-481: A breach of general obligations imposed by law and not by contract. This broad family of civil wrongs involves interference "with person, property, reputation, or commercial or social advantage." Thomas Watt Gregory Thomas Watt Gregory (November 6, 1861 – February 26, 1933) was an American politician and lawyer. He was a progressive and attorney who served as US Attorney General from 1914 to 1919 under US President Woodrow Wilson . Gregory
889-614: A campaign to crush domestic dissent during World War I . Gregory helped frame the Espionage and Sedition Acts , which compromised the constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and press, and he lobbied for their passage. He encouraged extralegal surveillance by the American Protective League and directed the federal prosecutions of more than 2000 opponents of the war: "By 1918 the Attorney General
1016-512: A comparable expansion of the use of the death penalty the same year. In 1994, Robert K. Dornan proposed the death penalty for the disclosure of a U.S. agent's identity. Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary Much of the Act's enforcement was left to the discretion of local United States Attorneys , so enforcement varied widely. For example, Socialist Kate Richards O'Hare gave
1143-531: A compromise. The President's Congressional rivals were proposing to remove responsibility for monitoring pro-German activity, whether espionage or some form of disloyalty, from the Department of Justice to the War Department and creating a form of courts-martial of doubtful constitutionality. The resulting Act was far more aggressive and restrictive than they wanted, but it silenced citizens opposed to
1270-452: A court as persuasive authority as to how a particular statute or regulation may be interpreted (known as Skidmore deference), but are not entitled to Chevron deference. Unlike the situation with the states, there is no plenary reception statute at the federal level that continued the common law and thereby granted federal courts the power to formulate legal precedent like their English predecessors. Federal courts are solely creatures of
1397-581: A final version is published in the Federal Register. The regulations are codified and incorporated into the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) which is published once a year on a rolling schedule. Besides regulations formally promulgated under the APA, federal agencies also frequently promulgate an enormous amount of forms, manuals, policy statements, letters, and rulings. These documents may be considered by
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#17327729919831524-597: A handful of areas like insurance , Congress has enacted laws expressly refusing to regulate them as long as the states have laws regulating them (see, e.g., the McCarran–Ferguson Act ). After the president signs a bill into law (or Congress enacts it over the president's veto), it is delivered to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) where it
1651-534: A legal stumbling block for the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt , when he sought to provide military aid to Great Britain before the United States entered World War II . The law was extended on May 16, 1918, by the Sedition Act of 1918, actually a set of amendments to the Espionage Act, which prohibited many forms of speech, including "any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about
1778-438: A legislative branch which enacts state statutes, an executive branch that promulgates state regulations pursuant to statutory authorization, and a judicial branch that applies, interprets, and occasionally overturns both state statutes and regulations, as well as local ordinances. They retain plenary power to make laws covering anything not preempted by the federal Constitution, federal statutes, or international treaties ratified by
1905-426: A lesser form of judicial deference known as Skidmore deference . Many lawsuits turn on the meaning of a federal statute or regulation, and judicial interpretations of such meaning carry legal force under the principle of stare decisis . During the 18th and 19th centuries, federal law traditionally focused on areas where there was an express grant of power to the federal government in the federal Constitution, like
2032-495: A life sentence, after a 'victim impact statement' including a statement by Caspar Weinberger . Larry Wu-Tai Chin , at CIA, was also charged with violating 18 U.S.C. § 794(c) for selling information to China. Ronald Pelton was prosecuted for violating 18 U.S.C. § 794(a) , 794(c) , & 798(a) , for selling information to the Soviets, and interfering with Operation Ivy Bells . Edward Lee Howard
2159-409: A matter of fundamental fairness, and second, because in the absence of case law, it would be completely unworkable for every minor issue in every legal case to be briefed, argued, and decided from first principles (such as relevant statutes, constitutional provisions, and underlying public policies), which in turn would create hopeless inefficiency, instability, and unpredictability, and thereby undermine
2286-415: A medical issue and others categorizing the same offense as a serious felony . The law of criminal procedure in the United States consists of a massive overlay of federal constitutional case law interwoven with the federal and state statutes that actually provide the foundation for the creation and operation of law enforcement agencies and prison systems as well as the proceedings in criminal trials. Due to
2413-409: A mistrial based on irregularities in the government's case. The divided Supreme Court had denied the government's request to restrain the press. In their opinions, the justices expressed varying degrees of support for the First Amendment claims of the press against the government's "heavy burden of proof" in establishing that the publisher "has reason to believe" the material published "could be used to
2540-521: A number of civil law innovations. In the United States, the law is derived from five sources: constitutional law , statutory law , treaties, administrative regulations , and the common law (which includes case law). If Congress enacts a statute that conflicts with the Constitution, state or federal courts may rule that law to be unconstitutional and declare it invalid. Notably, a statute does not automatically disappear merely because it has been found unconstitutional; it may, however, be deleted by
2667-508: A person who was not "entitled to have it". The Espionage Act law imposed much stiffer penalties than the 1911 law, including the death penalty. President Woodrow Wilson , in his December 7, 1915 State of the Union address, asked Congress for the legislation. Congress moved slowly. Even after the U.S. broke diplomatic relations with Germany, when the Senate passed a version on February 20, 1917,
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#17327729919832794-481: A regent of the University of Texas for eight years. Gregory Gymnasium was named in honor of his efforts to provide an adequate exercise facility for the students and faculty of the university. He declined appointment as assistant attorney general of Texas in 1892 and an appointment to the state bench in 1896, but he "gained experience as a trust prosecutor as a special counsel for the state of Texas." He embraced
2921-658: A result, certain older cases, such as the Rosenberg case, are now listed under Title 50, while newer cases are often listed under Title 18. In 1950, during the McCarthy Period , Congress passed the McCarran Internal Security Act over President Harry S. Truman 's veto. It modified a large body of law, including espionage law. One addition was 793(e) , which had almost exactly the same language as 793(d) . According to Edgar and Schmidt,
3048-649: A small number of important British statutes in effect at the time of the Revolution have been independently reenacted by U.S. states. Two examples are the Statute of Frauds (still widely known in the U.S. by that name) and the Statute of 13 Elizabeth (the ancestor of the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act). Such English statutes are still regularly cited in contemporary American cases interpreting their modern American descendants. Despite
3175-529: A subsequent statute. Many federal and state statutes have remained on the books for decades after they were ruled to be unconstitutional. However, under the principle of stare decisis , a lower court that enforces an unconstitutional statute will be reversed by the Supreme Court. Conversely, any court that refuses to enforce a constitutional statute will risk reversal by the Supreme Court. The United States and most Commonwealth countries are heirs to
3302-400: A willingness to reconsider others. And that willingness could itself threaten to substitute disruption, confusion, and uncertainty for necessary legal stability. We have not found here any factors that might overcome these considerations. It is now sometimes possible, over time, for a line of precedents to drift from the express language of any underlying statutory or constitutional texts until
3429-427: A year or less in jail and a substantial fine. To simplify the prosecution of traffic violations and other relatively minor crimes, some states have added a third level, infractions . These may result in fines and sometimes the loss of one's driver's license, but no jail time. On average, only three percent of criminal cases are resolved by jury trial; 97 percent are terminated either by plea bargaining or dismissal of
3556-441: Is no general federal common law . Although federal courts can create federal common law in the form of case law, such law must be linked one way or another to the interpretation of a particular federal constitutional provision, statute, or regulation (which was either enacted as part of the Constitution or pursuant to constitutional authority). Federal courts lack the plenary power possessed by state courts to simply make up law, which
3683-526: Is assigned a law number, and prepared for publication as a slip law . Public laws, but not private laws, are also given legal statutory citation by the OFR. At the end of each session of Congress, the slip laws are compiled into bound volumes called the United States Statutes at Large , and they are known as session laws . The Statutes at Large present a chronological arrangement of the laws in
3810-588: Is calculated to interfere with the success of ... the government in conducting the war". Postmasters in Savannah, Georgia , and Tampa, Florida , refused to mail the Jeffersonian , the mouthpiece of Tom Watson , a southern populist, an opponent of the draft, the war, and minority groups. When Watson sought an injunction against the postmaster, the federal judge who heard the case called his publication "poison" and denied his request. Government censors objected to
3937-462: Is not repugnant to domestic law or indigenous conditions. Some reception statutes impose a specific cutoff date for reception, such as the date of a colony's founding, while others are deliberately vague. Thus, contemporary U.S. courts often cite pre-Revolution cases when discussing the evolution of an ancient judge-made common law principle into its modern form, such as the heightened duty of care traditionally imposed upon common carriers . Second,
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4064-423: Is permitted in some states but not others. Three strikes laws in certain states impose harsh penalties on repeat offenders. Some states distinguish between two levels: felonies and misdemeanors (minor crimes). Generally, most felony convictions result in lengthy prison sentences as well as subsequent probation , large fines , and orders to pay restitution directly to victims; while misdemeanors may lead to
4191-460: Is the most prominent of the small number of remaining equity courts. Thirty-five states have adopted rules of civil procedure modeled after the FRCP (including rule numbers). However, in doing so, they had to make some modifications to account for the fact that state courts have broad general jurisdiction while federal courts have relatively limited jurisdiction. New York, Illinois, and California are
4318-571: Is the official compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal statutes. Many statutes give executive branch agencies the power to create regulations , which are published in the Federal Register and codified into the Code of Federal Regulations . From 1984 to 2024, regulations generally also carried the force of law under the Chevron doctrine , but are now subject only to
4445-540: Is usually expressed in the form of various legal rights and duties). (The remainder of this article requires the reader to be already familiar with the contents of the separate article on state law .) Criminal law involves the prosecution by the state of wrongful acts which are considered to be so serious that they are a breach of the sovereign's peace (and cannot be deterred or remedied by mere lawsuits between private parties). Generally, crimes can result in incarceration , but torts (see below) cannot. The majority of
4572-667: The Pentagon Papers . The Supreme Court in New York Times Co. v. United States found that the government had not made a successful case for prior restraint of Free Speech, but a majority of the justices ruled that the government could still prosecute the Times and the Post for violating the Espionage Act in publishing the documents. Ellsberg and Russo were not acquitted of violating the Espionage Act. They were freed due to
4699-620: The California constitutional convention was already complaining: "Now, when we require them to state the reasons for a decision, we do not mean they shall write a hundred pages of detail. We [do] not mean that they shall include the small cases, and impose on the country all this fine judicial literature, for the Lord knows we have got enough of that already." Today, in the words of Stanford law professor Lawrence M. Friedman : "American cases rarely cite foreign materials. Courts occasionally cite
4826-452: The Erie doctrine is that federal courts cannot dictate the content of state law when there is no federal issue (and thus no federal supremacy issue) in a case. When hearing claims under state law pursuant to diversity jurisdiction , federal trial courts must apply the statutory and decisional law of the state in which they sit, as if they were a court of that state, even if they believe that
4953-486: The Federal Arbitration Act (which has been interpreted to cover all contracts arising under federal or state law), arbitration clauses are generally enforceable unless the party resisting arbitration can show unconscionability or fraud or something else which undermines the entire contract. Tort law generally covers any civil action between private parties arising from wrongful acts that amount to
5080-484: The Judiciary Acts ), and the beginning of regular verbatim publication of U.S. appellate decisions by West Publishing . The rule gradually developed, case-by-case, as an extension of the judiciary's public policy of effective judicial administration (that is, in order to efficiently exercise the judicial power). The rule of binding precedent is generally justified today as a matter of public policy, first, as
5207-759: The Venona project decryptions, the Elizabeth Bentley case, the atomic spies cases, the First Lightning Soviet nuclear test, and others. Many suspects were surveilled, but never prosecuted. These investigations were dropped, as seen in the FBI Silvermaster Files . There were also many successful prosecutions and convictions under the Act. In August 1950, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were indicted under Title 50, sections 32a and 34, in connection with giving nuclear secrets to
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5334-538: The military , money , foreign relations (especially international treaties), tariffs , intellectual property (specifically patents and copyrights ), and mail . Since the start of the 20th century, broad interpretations of the Commerce and Spending Clauses of the Constitution have enabled federal law to expand into areas like aviation , telecommunications , railroads , pharmaceuticals , antitrust , and trademarks . In some areas, like aviation and railroads,
5461-451: The rule of law . The contemporary form of the rule is descended from Justice Louis Brandeis 's "landmark dissent in 1932's Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co .", which "catalogued the Court's actual overruling practices in such a powerful manner that his attendant stare decisis analysis immediately assumed canonical authority." Here is a typical exposition of how public policy supports
5588-656: The "intemperate and impartial trial of which they were entitled" and reversed their conviction. In May 1920 the government announced that all charges had been dropped. During the Red Scare of 1918–19, in response to the 1919 anarchist bombings aimed at prominent government officials and businessmen, U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer , supported by J. Edgar Hoover , then head of the Justice Department's Enemy Aliens Registration Section, prosecuted several hundred foreign-born known and suspected activists in
5715-440: The 50 U.S. states and in the territories. However, the scope of federal preemption is limited because the scope of federal power is not universal. In the dual sovereign system of American federalism (actually tripartite because of the presence of Indian reservations ), states are the plenary sovereigns , each with their own constitution , while the federal sovereign possesses only the limited supreme authority enumerated in
5842-670: The Act to deny mailing permits to both The Militant , which was published by the Socialist Workers Party , and the Boise Valley Herald of Middleton, Idaho , an anti-New Deal and anti-war weekly. The paper had also criticized wartime racism against African Americans and Japanese internment. The same year, a June front-page story by Stanley Johnston in the Chicago Tribune , headlined "Navy Had Word of Jap Plan to Strike at Sea", implied that
5969-529: The Act were much less numerous during World War II than during World War I. The likely reason was not that Roosevelt was more tolerant of dissent than Wilson but rather that the lack of continuing opposition after the Pearl Harbor attack presented far fewer potential targets for prosecutions under the law. Associate Justice Frank Murphy noted in 1944 in Hartzel v. United States : "For the first time during
6096-588: The Americans had broken the Japanese codes before the Battle of Midway . Before submitting the story, Johnson asked the managing editor, Loy “Pat” Maloney, and Washington Bureau Chief Arthur Sears Henning if the content violated the Code of Wartime Practices. They concluded that it was in compliance because the code had said nothing about reporting the movement of enemy ships in enemy waters. The story resulted in
6223-485: The Battle of Midway". Attorney General Biddle confessed years later that the final result of the case made him feel "like a fool". In 1945, six associates of Amerasia magazine, a journal of Far Eastern affairs, came under suspicion after publishing articles that bore similarity to Office of Strategic Services reports. The government proposed using the Espionage Act against them. It later softened its approach, changing
6350-461: The Constitution. Indeed, states may grant their citizens broader rights than the federal Constitution as long as they do not infringe on any federal constitutional rights. Thus U.S. law (especially the actual "living law" of contract , tort , property , probate , criminal and family law , experienced by citizens on a day-to-day basis) consists primarily of state law , which, while sometimes harmonized, can and does vary greatly from one state to
6477-407: The Espionage Act remain, codified under U.S.C. Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 37. In 1933, after signals intelligence expert Herbert Yardley published a popular book about breaking Japanese codes, the Act was amended to prohibit the disclosure of foreign code or anything sent in code. The Act was amended in 1940 to increase the penalties it imposed, and again in 1970. In the late 1940s, the U.S. Code
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#17327729919836604-481: The Espionage Act. Though not a case involving charges under the Act, Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) changed the "clear and present danger" test derived from Schenck to the " imminent lawless action " test, a considerably stricter test of the inflammatory nature of speech. In June 1971, Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo were charged with a felony under the Espionage Act of 1917 because they lacked legal authority to publish classified documents that came to be known as
6731-561: The House did not vote before the then-current session of Congress ended. After the declaration of war in April 1917, both houses debated versions of the Wilson administration's drafts that included press censorship. That provision aroused opposition, with critics charging it established a system of " prior restraint " and delegated unlimited power to the president. After weeks of intermittent debate,
6858-476: The Japanese changing their codebooks and callsign systems. The newspaper publishers were brought before a grand jury for possible indictment, but proceedings were halted because of government reluctance to present a jury with the highly secret information necessary to prosecute the publishers. In addition, the Navy had failed to provide promised evidence that the story had revealed "confidential information concerning
6985-538: The Post Office. It made it a crime: The Act also gave the Postmaster General authority to impound or refuse to mail publications the postmaster determined to violate its prohibitions. The Act also forbids the transfer of any naval vessel equipped for combat to any nation engaged in a conflict in which the United States is neutral. Seemingly uncontroversial when the Act was passed, this later became
7112-491: The President", did not urge mutiny or any of the other specific actions detailed in the Act, and that he had targeted molders of public opinion, not members of the armed forces or potential military recruits. The court overturned his conviction in a 5–4 decision. The four dissenting justices declined to "intrude on the historic function of the jury" and would have upheld the conviction. In Gorin v. United States (early 1941),
7239-423: The Senate removed the censorship provision by a one-vote margin, voting 39 to 38. Wilson still insisted it was needed: "Authority to exercise censorship over the press....is absolutely necessary to the public safety", but signed the Act without the censorship provisions on June 15, 1917, after Congress passed the act on the same day. Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory supported passage of the act but viewed it as
7366-570: The Soviet Union. Anatoli Yakovlev was indicted as well. In 1951, Morton Sobell and David Greenglass were indicted. After a controversial trial in 1951, the Rosenbergs were sentenced to death. They were executed in 1953. In the late 1950s, several members of the Soble spy ring , including Robert Soblen , and Jack and Myra Soble , were prosecuted for espionage. In the mid-1960s, the act
7493-449: The Supreme Court ruled on many constitutional questions surrounding the act. The Act was used in 1942 to deny a mailing permit to Father Charles Coughlin 's weekly Social Justice , effectively ending its distribution to subscribers. It was part of Attorney General Francis Biddle 's attempt to close down what he called "vermin publications". Coughlin had been criticized for virulently anti-Semitic writings. Later, Biddle supported use of
7620-609: The Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a man who distributed circulars in opposition to American intervention in Russia following the Russian Revolution . The concept of bad tendency was used to justify speech restriction. The defendant was deported. Justices Holmes and Brandeis dissented, the former arguing "nobody can suppose that the surreptitious publishing of a silly leaflet by an unknown man, without more, would present any immediate danger that its opinions would hinder
7747-447: The U.S. Supreme Court case Schenck v. United States (1919). Schenck, an anti-war Socialist, had been convicted of violating the Act when he sent anti-draft pamphlets to men eligible for the 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 must be limited to such political expression that constitutes
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#17327729919837874-466: The United Kingdom lacked a coherent court hierarchy prior to the end of the 19th century. Furthermore, English judges in the eighteenth century subscribed to now-obsolete natural law theories of law, by which law was believed to have an existence independent of what individual judges said. Judges saw themselves as merely declaring the law which had always theoretically existed, and not as making
8001-557: The United States under the Sedition Act of 1918 . This extended the Espionage Act to cover a broader range of offenses. After being convicted, persons including Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman were deported to the Soviet Union on a ship the press called the " Soviet Ark ". Many of the jailed had appealed their convictions based on the U.S. constitutional right to the freedom of speech. The Supreme Court disagreed. The Espionage Act limits on free speech were ruled constitutional in
8128-496: The added section potentially removes the "intent" to harm or aid requirement. It may make "mere retention" of information a crime no matter the intent, covering even former government officials writing their memoirs. They also describe McCarran saying that this portion was intended directly to respond to the case of Alger Hiss and the " Pumpkin Papers ". Court decisions of this era changed the standard for enforcing some provisions of
8255-406: The average American citizen is subject to the rules and regulations of several dozen different agencies at the federal, state, and local levels, depending upon one's current location and behavior. American lawyers draw a fundamental distinction between procedural law (which controls the procedure by which legal rights and duties are vindicated) and substantive law (the actual substance of law, which
8382-506: The charge to Embezzlement of Government Property (now 18 U.S.C. § 641 ). A grand jury cleared three of the associates, two associates paid small fines, and charges against the sixth man were dropped. Senator Joseph McCarthy said the failure to aggressively prosecute the defendants was a communist conspiracy. According to Klehr and Radosh, the case helped build his later notoriety. Navy employee Hafis Salich sold Soviet agent Mihail Gorin information regarding Japanese activities in
8509-405: The charges. For public welfare offenses where the state is punishing merely risky (as opposed to injurious) behavior, there is significant diversity across the various states. For example, punishments for drunk driving varied greatly prior to 1990. State laws dealing with drug crimes still vary widely, with some states treating possession of small amounts of drugs as a misdemeanor offense or as
8636-473: The class. Another unique feature is the so-called American Rule under which parties generally bear their own attorneys' fees (as opposed to the English Rule of "loser pays"), though American legislators and courts have carved out numerous exceptions. Contract law covers obligations established by agreement (express or implied) between private parties. Generally, contract law in transactions involving
8763-405: The common law legal tradition of English law. Certain practices traditionally allowed under English common law were expressly outlawed by the Constitution, such as bills of attainder and general search warrants. As common law courts, U.S. courts have inherited the principle of stare decisis . American judges, like common law judges elsewhere, not only apply the law, they also make the law, to
8890-410: The course of the present war, we are confronted with a prosecution under the Espionage Act of 1917." Hartzel, a World War I veteran, had distributed anti-war pamphlets to associations and business groups. The court's majority found that his materials, though comprising "vicious and unreasoning attacks on one of our military allies, flagrant appeals to false and sinister racial theories, and gross libels of
9017-460: The courts' decisions establish doctrines that were not considered by the texts' drafters. This trend has been strongly evident in federal substantive due process and Commerce Clause decisions. Originalists and political conservatives, such as Associate Justice Antonin Scalia have criticized this trend as anti-democratic. Under the doctrine of Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins (1938), there
9144-542: The crimes committed in the United States are prosecuted and punished at the state level. Federal criminal law focuses on areas specifically relevant to the federal government like evading payment of federal income tax, mail theft, or physical attacks on federal officials, as well as interstate crimes like drug trafficking and wire fraud. All states have somewhat similar laws in regard to "higher crimes" (or felonies ), such as murder and rape , although penalties for these crimes may vary from state to state. Capital punishment
9271-729: The difference between classified information and "national defense information", wiretapping and the Fourth Amendment. It also commented on the notion of bad faith ( scienter ) being a requirement for conviction even under 793(e); an "honest mistake" was said not to be a violation. Alfred Zehe , a scientist from East Germany , was arrested in Boston in 1983 after being caught in a government-run sting operation in which he had reviewed classified U.S. government documents in Mexico and East Germany. His attorneys contended without success that
9398-591: The earth demand of peace-loving men the sacrifice of themselves and their loved ones and the butchery of their fellows, and hail it as a duty demanded by the laws of heaven." The officers of the Watchtower Society were charged with attempting to cause insubordination, disloyalty, refusal of duty in the armed forces and obstructing the recruitment and enlistment service of the U.S. while it was at war. The book had been banned in Canada since February 1918 for what
9525-468: The enforcement of the Act. He held his position because he was a Democratic party loyalist and close to the President and the Attorney General. When the Department of Justice numbered its investigators in the dozens, the Post Office had a nationwide network in place. The day after the Act became law, Burleson sent a secret memo to all postmasters ordering them to keep "close watch on ... matter which
9652-613: The exact order that they have been enacted. Public laws are incorporated into the United States Code , which is a codification of all general and permanent laws of the United States. The main edition is published every six years by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives , and cumulative supplements are published annually. The U.S. Code is arranged by subject matter, and it shows
9779-412: The extent that their decisions in the cases before them become precedent for decisions in future cases. The actual substance of English law was formally "received" into the United States in several ways. First, all U.S. states except Louisiana have enacted " reception statutes " which generally state that the common law of England (particularly judge-made law) is the law of the state to the extent that it
9906-607: The federal Constitution and the federal Judiciary Acts. However, it is universally accepted that the Founding Fathers of the United States , by vesting "judicial power" into the Supreme Court and the inferior federal courts in Article Three of the United States Constitution , thereby vested in them the implied judicial power of common law courts to formulate persuasive precedent ; this power
10033-450: The federal Senate. Normally, state supreme courts are the final interpreters of state constitutions and state law, unless their interpretation itself presents a federal issue, in which case a decision may be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court by way of a petition for writ of certiorari . State laws have dramatically diverged in the centuries since independence, to the extent that the United States cannot be regarded as one legal system as to
10160-439: The federal government has developed a comprehensive scheme that preempts virtually all state law, while in others, like family law, a relatively small number of federal statutes (generally covering interstate and international situations) interacts with a much larger body of state law. In areas like antitrust, trademark, and employment law , there are powerful laws at both the federal and state levels that coexist with each other. In
10287-584: The form of government of the United States ;... or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or Navy". Because the Sedition Act was an informal name, court cases were brought under the name of the Espionage Act, whether the charges were based on the provisions of the Espionage Act or the provisions of the amendments known informally as the Sedition Act. On March 3, 1921, the Sedition Act amendments were repealed, but many provisions of
10414-672: The foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well as various civil liberties . The Constitution sets out the boundaries of federal law, which consists of Acts of Congress , treaties ratified by the Senate , regulations promulgated by the executive branch , and case law originating from the federal judiciary . The United States Code is the official compilation and codification of general and permanent federal statutory law. The Constitution provides that it, as well as federal laws and treaties that are made pursuant to it, preempt conflicting state and territorial laws in
10541-443: The headline "Civil Liberty Dead". In New York City, the postmaster refused to mail The Masses , a socialist monthly, citing the publication's "general tenor". The Masses was more successful in the courts, where Judge Learned Hand found the Act was applied so vaguely as to threaten "the tradition of English-speaking freedom". The editors were then prosecuted for obstructing the draft, and the publication folded when denied access to
10668-477: The high seas, and within the United States" 18 U.S.C. § 791 . He said the need for the Act to apply everywhere was prompted by Irvin C. Scarbeck , a State Department official who was charged with yielding to blackmail threats in Poland . In 1989, Congressman James Traficant tried to amend 18 U.S.C. § 794 to broaden the application of the death penalty. Senator Arlen Specter proposed
10795-520: The indictment was invalid, arguing that the Espionage Act does not cover the activities of a foreign citizen outside the United States. Zehe then pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 8 years in prison. He was released in June 1985 as part of an exchange of four East Europeans held by the U.S. for 25 people held in Poland and East Germany, none of them American. One of Zehe's defense attorneys claimed his client
10922-529: The injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation". The case prompted Harold Edgar and Benno C. Schmidt Jr. to write an article on espionage law in the 1973 Columbia Law Review . Their article was entitled "The Espionage Statutes and Publication of Defense Information". Essentially, they found the law poorly written and vague, with parts of it probably unconstitutional. Their article became widely cited in books and in future court arguments on Espionage cases. United States v. Dedeyan in 1978
11049-498: The investigation and proceedings against the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company . In 1914, US President Woodrow Wilson appointed him US Attorney General , an office that Gregory held until 1919. Despite a continuing commitment to progressive reform, Gregory provoked enormous controversy performance as attorney general because of his collaboration with Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson and others in orchestrating
11176-409: The issue, but has signaled in dicta that it sides with this rule. Therefore, in those states, there is only one federal court that binds all state courts as to the interpretation of federal law and the federal Constitution: the U.S. Supreme Court itself. The fifty American states are separate sovereigns , with their own state constitutions , state governments , and state courts . All states have
11303-406: The late 1930s. Gorin v. United States (1941) was cited in many later espionage cases for its discussion of the charge of "vagueness", an argument made against the terminology used in certain portions of the law, such as what constitutes "national defense" information. Later in the 1940s, several incidents prompted the government to increase its investigations into Soviet espionage. These included
11430-433: The latter are able to do in the absence of constitutional or statutory provisions replacing the common law. Only in a few narrow limited areas, like maritime law, has the Constitution expressly authorized the continuation of English common law at the federal level (meaning that in those areas federal courts can continue to make law as they see fit, subject to the limitations of stare decisis ). The other major implication of
11557-551: The law, its relationship to free speech, and the meaning of its language have been contested in court ever since. Among those charged with offenses under the Act were: Austrian-American socialist congressman and newspaper editor Victor L. Berger ; labor leader and five-time Socialist Party of America candidate Eugene V. Debs , anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman , former Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society president Joseph Franklin Rutherford (whose conviction
11684-428: The law. Therefore, a judge could reject another judge's opinion as simply an incorrect statement of the law, in the way that scientists regularly reject each other's conclusions as incorrect statements of the laws of science. In turn, according to Kozinski's analysis, the contemporary rule of binding precedent became possible in the U.S. in the nineteenth century only after the creation of a clear court hierarchy (under
11811-469: The mails again. Eventually, Burleson's vigorous enforcement overreached when he targeted supporters of the administration. The president warned him to exercise "the utmost caution", and the dispute proved the end of their political friendship. In May 1918, sedition charges were laid under the Espionage Act against Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society president "Judge" Joseph Rutherford and seven other Watch Tower directors and officers over statements made in
11938-1139: The majority of types of law traditionally under state control, but must be regarded as 50 separate systems of tort law, family law, property law, contract law, criminal law, and so on. Most cases are litigated in state courts and involve claims and defenses under state laws. In a 2018 report, the National Center for State Courts ' Court Statistics Project found that state trial courts received 83.8 million newly filed cases in 2018, which consisted of 44.4 million traffic cases, 17.0 million criminal cases, 16.4 million civil cases, 4.7 million domestic relations cases, and 1.2 million juvenile cases. In 2018, state appellate courts received 234,000 new cases. By way of comparison, all federal district courts in 2016 together received only about 274,552 new civil cases, 79,787 new criminal cases, and 833,515 bankruptcy cases, while federal appellate courts received 53,649 new cases. States have delegated lawmaking powers to thousands of agencies , townships , counties , cities , and special districts . And all
12065-462: The mid-19th century. Lawyers and judges used English legal materials to fill the gap. Citations to English decisions gradually disappeared during the 19th century as American courts developed their own principles to resolve the legal problems of the American people. The number of published volumes of American reports soared from eighteen in 1810 to over 8,000 by 1910. By 1879 one of the delegates to
12192-542: The most famous is the Miranda warning . The writ of habeas corpus is often used by suspects and convicts to challenge their detention, while the Third Enforcement Act and Bivens actions are used by suspects to recover tort damages for police brutality. The law of civil procedure governs process in all judicial proceedings involving lawsuits between private parties. Traditional common law pleading
12319-664: The most significant states that have not adopted the FRCP. Furthermore, all three states continue to maintain most of their civil procedure laws in the form of codified statutes enacted by the state legislature, as opposed to court rules promulgated by the state supreme court, on the ground that the latter are undemocratic. But certain key portions of their civil procedure laws have been modified by their legislatures to bring them closer to federal civil procedure. Generally, American civil procedure has several notable features, including extensive pretrial discovery , heavy reliance on live testimony obtained at deposition or elicited in front of
12446-664: The next. Even in areas governed by federal law, state law is often supplemented, rather than preempted. At both the federal and state levels, with the exception of the legal system of Louisiana , the law of the United States is largely derived from the common law system of English law , which was in force in British America at the time of the American Revolutionary War . However, American law has diverged greatly from its English ancestor both in terms of substance and procedure and has incorporated
12573-776: The original Espionage Act was left intact. Between 1921 and 1923, Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge released all those convicted under the Sedition and Espionage Acts. The Espionage Act of 1917 was passed, along with the Trading with the Enemy Act , just after the United States entered World War I in April 1917. It was based on the Defense Secrets Act of 1911 , especially the notions of obtaining or delivering information relating to "national defense" to
12700-482: The part of British soldiers during the American Revolution would undermine support for America's wartime ally. The producer, Robert Goldstein, a Jew of German origins, was prosecuted under Title XI of the Act and received a ten-year sentence plus a fine of $ 5000. The sentence was commuted on appeal to three years. Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson and those in his department played critical roles in
12827-416: The perennial inability of legislatures in the U.S. to enact statutes that would actually force law enforcement officers to respect the constitutional rights of criminal suspects and convicts, the federal judiciary gradually developed the exclusionary rule as a method to enforce such rights. In turn, the exclusionary rule spawned a family of judge-made remedies for the abuse of law enforcement powers, of which
12954-591: The presence of reception statutes, much of contemporary American common law has diverged significantly from English common law. Although the courts of the various Commonwealth nations are often influenced by each other's rulings, American courts rarely follow post-Revolution precedents from England or the British Commonwealth. Early on, American courts, even after the Revolution, often did cite contemporary English cases, because appellate decisions from many American courts were not regularly reported until
13081-567: The present status of laws (with amendments already incorporated in the text) that have been amended on one or more occasions. Congress often enacts statutes that grant broad rulemaking authority to federal agencies . Often, Congress is simply too gridlocked to draft detailed statutes that explain how the agency should react to every possible situation, or Congress believes the agency's technical specialists are best equipped to deal with particular fact situations as they arise. Therefore, federal agencies are authorized to promulgate regulations. Under
13208-544: The principle of Chevron deference, regulations normally carry the force of law as long as they are based on a reasonable interpretation of the relevant statutes. Regulations are adopted pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Regulations are first proposed and published in the Federal Register (FR or Fed. Reg.) and subject to a public comment period. Eventually, after a period for public comment and revisions based on comments received,
13335-692: The progressive rhetoric of the early 20th century by his condemnations of "plutocratic power," "predatory wealth," and "the greed of the party spoilsmen" and participated in Edward M. House 's Democratic coalition. Gregory was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at St. Louis and at state delegate at-large at the Baltimore convention. He was appointed Special Assistant to the US Attorney General in 1913 in
13462-580: The relevant state law is irrational or just bad public policy. Under Erie , such federal deference to state law applies only in one direction: state courts are not bound by federal interpretations of state law. Similarly, state courts are also not bound by most federal interpretations of federal law. In the vast majority of state courts, interpretations of federal law from federal courts of appeals and district courts can be cited as persuasive authority, but state courts are not bound by those interpretations. The U.S. Supreme Court has never squarely addressed
13589-473: The rest were unpublished and bound only the parties to each case. As federal judge Alex Kozinski has pointed out, binding precedent as we know it today simply did not exist at the time the Constitution was framed. Judicial decisions were not consistently, accurately, and faithfully reported on both sides of the Atlantic (reporters often simply rewrote or failed to publish decisions which they disliked), and
13716-453: The rule of stare decisis . This is where the act of deciding a case becomes a limited form of lawmaking in itself, in that an appellate court's rulings will thereby bind itself and lower courts in future cases (and therefore also implicitly binds all persons within the court's jurisdiction). Prior to a major change to federal court rules in 2007, about one-fifth of federal appellate cases were published and thereby became binding precedents, while
13843-422: The rule of binding precedent in a 2008 majority opinion signed by Justice Breyer : Justice Brandeis once observed that "in most matters it is more important that the applicable rule of law be settled than that it be settled right." Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co. [...] To overturn a decision settling one such matter simply because we might believe that decision is no longer "right" would inevitably reflect
13970-609: The sale of goods has become highly standardized nationwide as a result of the widespread adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code. However, there is still significant diversity in the interpretation of other kinds of contracts, depending upon the extent to which a given state has codified its common law of contracts or adopted portions of the Restatement (Second) of Contracts . Parties are permitted to agree to arbitrate disputes arising from their contracts. Under
14097-734: The same speech in several states but was convicted and sentenced to prison for five years for delivering her speech in North Dakota. Most enforcement activities occurred in the Western states where the Industrial Workers of the World was active. Finally, a few weeks before the end of the war, the U.S. Attorney General instructed U.S. Attorneys not to act without his approval. A year after the Act's passage, Eugene V. Debs , Socialist Party presidential candidate in 1904, 1908, and 1912
14224-491: The society's book, The Finished Mystery , published a year earlier. According to the book Preachers Present Arms by Ray H. Abrams, the passage (from page 247) found to be particularly objectionable reads: "Nowhere in the New Testament is patriotism (a narrowly minded hatred of other peoples) encouraged. Everywhere and always murder in its every form is forbidden. And yet under the guise of patriotism civil governments of
14351-448: The state constitutions, statutes and regulations (as well as all the ordinances and regulations promulgated by local entities) are subject to judicial interpretation like their federal counterparts. It is common for residents of major U.S. metropolitan areas to live under six or more layers of special districts as well as a town or city, and a county or township (in addition to the federal and state governments). Thus, at any given time,
14478-477: The success of the government arms or have any appreciable tendency to do so". In March 1919, President Wilson, at the suggestion of Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory , pardoned or commuted the sentences of some 200 prisoners convicted under the Espionage Act or the Sedition Act. By early 1921, the Red Scare had faded, Palmer left government, and the Espionage Act fell into relative disuse. Prosecutions under
14605-450: The war. Officials in the Justice Department who had little enthusiasm for the law nevertheless hoped that even without generating many prosecutions it would help quiet public calls for more government action against those thought to be insufficiently patriotic. Wilson was denied language in the Act authorizing power to the executive branch for press censorship, but Congress did include a provision to block distribution of print materials through
14732-537: Was able to declare, 'It is safe to say that never in its history has this country been so thoroughly policed.'" In 1916, Wilson wanted to appoint Gregory to the US Supreme Court , but Gregory declined the offer because of his impaired hearing, his eagerness to participate in Wilson's re-election campaign, and his belief that he lacked the necessary temperament to be a judge. He was a member of Wilson's Second Industrial Conference in 1919 and 1920. During
14859-556: Was an ex-Peace Corps and ex-CIA agent charged under 17 U.S.C. § 794(c) for allegedly dealing with the Soviets. The FBI's website says the 1980s was the "decade of the spy", with dozens of arrests. Law of the United States The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law , of which the supreme law is the nation's Constitution , which prescribes
14986-494: 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. President Warren G. Harding commuted his sentence in December 1921 when he had served nearly five years. In United States v. Motion Picture Film (1917), a federal court upheld the government's seizure of a film called The Spirit of '76 on the grounds that its depiction of cruelty on
15113-662: Was born in Crawfordsville, Mississippi . He graduated from the Webb School (Bell Buckle, Tennessee) in 1881 and Southwestern Presbyterian University , today known as Rhodes College , in 1883, and was a special student at the University of Virginia . Gregory entered the University of Texas at Austin in 1884 and graduated a year later with a degree in law. He began the practice of law in Austin in 1885 and served as
15240-489: Was intended to prohibit interference with military operations or recruitment , to prevent insubordination in the military, and to prevent the support of enemies of the United States during wartime. In 1919, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled through Schenck v. United States that the act did not violate the freedom of speech of those convicted under its provisions. The constitutionality of
15367-459: Was overturned on appeal), communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg , Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg , Cablegate whistleblower Chelsea Manning , WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange , Defense Intelligence Agency employee Henry Kyle Frese , and National Security Agency (NSA) contractor whistleblower Edward Snowden . Although the most controversial amendments, called the Sedition Act of 1918 , were repealed on December 13, 1920,
15494-494: Was prosecuted as part of "the perpetuation of the 'national-security state' by over-classifying documents that there is no reason to keep secret, other than devotion to the cult of secrecy for its own sake". The media dubbed 1985 " Year of the Spy ". U.S. Navy civilian Jonathan Pollard was charged with violating 18 U.S.C. § 794(c) , for selling classified information to Israel. His 1986 plea bargain did not get him out of
15621-414: Was re-organized and much of Title 50 (War) was moved to Title 18 (Crime). The McCarran Internal Security Act added 18 U.S.C. § 793(e) in 1950 and 18 U.S.C. § 798 was added the same year. In 1961, Congressman Richard Poff succeeded after several attempts in removing language that restricted the Act's application to territory "within the jurisdiction of the United States, on
15748-616: Was replaced by code pleading in 27 states after New York enacted the Field Code in 1850 and code pleading in turn was subsequently replaced again in most states by modern notice pleading during the 20th century. The old English division between common law and equity courts was abolished in the federal courts by the adoption of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in 1938; it has also been independently abolished by legislative acts in nearly all states. The Delaware Court of Chancery
15875-618: Was the first prosecution under 793(f)(2) (Dedeyan 'failed to report' that information had been disclosed). The courts relied on Gorin v. United States (1941) for precedent. The ruling touched on several constitutional questions, including vagueness of the law and whether the information was "related to national defense". The defendant received a 3-year sentence. In 1979–80, Truong Dinh Hung (aka David Truong ) and Ronald Louis Humphrey were convicted under 793(a), (c), and (e) as well as several other laws. The ruling discussed several constitutional questions regarding espionage law, "vagueness",
16002-458: Was used against James Mintkenbaugh and Robert Lee Johnson , who sold information to the Soviets while working for the U.S. Army in Berlin. In 1948, some portions of the United States Code were reorganized. Much of Title 50 (War and National Defense) was moved to Title 18 (Crimes and Criminal Procedure). Thus Title 50 Chapter 4, Espionage, (Sections 31–39), became Title 18, 794 and following. As
16129-516: Was widely accepted, understood, and recognized by the Founding Fathers at the time the Constitution was ratified. Several legal scholars have argued that the federal judicial power to decide " cases or controversies " necessarily includes the power to decide the precedential effect of those cases and controversies. The difficult question is whether federal judicial power extends to formulating binding precedent through strict adherence to
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