![]() For example, Marie Equi was arrested for giving a speech at the IWW hall in Portland, Oregon, and was convicted after the war was over. Enforcement varied greatly from one jurisdiction to the next, with most activity in the Western states where the Industrial Workers of the World labor union was active. Attorneys at first had considerable discretion in using these laws, until Attorney General Gregory, a few weeks before the end of the war, instructed them not to act without his approval. One notable case was that of Mollie Steimer, convicted under the Espionage Act as amended by the Sedition Act. The legislation came so late in the war, just a few months before Armistice Day, that prosecutions under the provisions of the Sedition Act were few. newspapers "showed no antipathy toward the act" and "far from opposing the measure, the leading papers seemed actually to lead the movement in behalf of its speedy enactment." Enforcement and constitutional challenges 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. ![]() Former President Theodore Roosevelt voiced opposition as well. Johnson defended free speech and Lodge complained the administration had failed to use the laws already in place. While much of the debate focused on the law's precise language, there was considerable opposition in the Senate, almost entirely from Republicans, especially Henry Cabot Lodge and Hiram Johnson. The final vote for passage was 48 to 26 in the Senate and 293 to 1 in the House of Representatives, with the sole dissenting vote in the House cast by Socialist Meyer London of New York. They also feared other proposals that would have withdrawn prosecutorial authority from the Justice Department and placed it in the War Department, creating a sort of civilian court-martial process of questionable constitutionality. They hoped to avoid hearings that would embarrass the administration for its failure to prosecute offensive speech. ![]() President Wilson and his Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory viewed the bill as a political compromise. Amendments to enhance the government's authority under the Espionage Act would prevent mobs from doing what the government was not able to. In their view the country was witnessing instances of public disorder that represented the public's own attempt to punish unpopular speech in light of the government's inability to do so. Wartime violence on the part of local groups of citizens, sometimes mobs or vigilantes, persuaded some lawmakers that the law was inadequate. The Espionage Act of 1917 made it a crime to interfere with the war effort, disrupt military recruitment, or to attempt to aid a nation at war with the U.S. Court decisions do not use the shorthand term Sedition Act, but the correct legal term for the law, the Espionage Act, whether as originally enacted or as amended in 1918. For example, one historian reports that "some fifteen hundred prosecutions were carried out under the Espionage and Sedition Acts, resulting in more than a thousand convictions". Therefore, many studies of the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act find it difficult to report on the two "acts" separately. Though the legislation enacted in 1918 is commonly called the Sedition Act, it was actually a set of amendments to the Espionage Act. The law was repealed on December 13, 1920. was in a declared state of war at the time of passage, the First World War. It applied only to times "when the United States is in war". The act also allowed the Postmaster General to refuse to deliver mail that met those same standards for punishable speech or opinion. Those convicted under the act generally received sentences of imprisonment for five to 20 years. It forbade the use of "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, its flag, or its armed forces or that caused others to view the American government or its institutions with contempt. 553, enacted May 16, 1918) was an Act of the United States Congress that extended the Espionage Act of 1917 to cover a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds. Signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on May 16, 1918.Reported by the joint conference committee on agreed to by the House on May 7, 1918 ( 292-1) and by the Senate on May 7, 1918 (Agreed).Passed the House on April 23, 1918 (Passed).Introduced in the House as H.R. 8753 by Edwin Y.
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