Espionage Act of 1917
E10089
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a U.S. federal law enacted during World War I that criminalizes interference with military operations, support for U.S. enemies, and certain forms of dissent, and has been widely used and debated in national security and free speech cases.
All labels observed (6)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T28180 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
Target entity: Espionage Act of 1917 Context triple: [Lever Food and Fuel Control Act of 1917, relatedTo, Espionage Act of 1917]
-
A.
National Security Act of 1947
The National Security Act of 1947 is a landmark U.S. law that reorganized the nation’s military and intelligence structure, creating institutions such as the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
-
B.
Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949
The Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 is a U.S. federal law that provided the CIA with administrative and financial authorities, including special procedures for secrecy and funding, enabling it to operate as the nation’s primary foreign intelligence agency.
-
C.
National Security Act Amendments of 1949
The National Security Act Amendments of 1949 were U.S. legislation that reorganized and strengthened the post–World War II national security structure, notably transforming the National Military Establishment into the Department of Defense and refining the roles of key defense and intelligence agencies.
-
D.
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is a U.S. federal law that governs the procedures for physical and electronic surveillance and collection of foreign intelligence information, particularly for national security and counterintelligence purposes.
-
E.
Reynolds v. United States
Reynolds v. United States is an 1879 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the distinction between protected religious belief and regulable religiously motivated conduct, holding that the Free Exercise Clause does not excuse individuals from compliance with otherwise valid criminal laws such as those banning polygamy.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
Target entity: Espionage Act of 1917 Target entity description: The Espionage Act of 1917 is a U.S. federal law enacted during World War I that criminalizes interference with military operations, support for U.S. enemies, and certain forms of dissent, and has been widely used and debated in national security and free speech cases.
-
A.
National Security Act of 1947
The National Security Act of 1947 is a landmark U.S. law that reorganized the nation’s military and intelligence structure, creating institutions such as the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
-
B.
Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949
The Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 is a U.S. federal law that provided the CIA with administrative and financial authorities, including special procedures for secrecy and funding, enabling it to operate as the nation’s primary foreign intelligence agency.
-
C.
National Security Act Amendments of 1949
The National Security Act Amendments of 1949 were U.S. legislation that reorganized and strengthened the post–World War II national security structure, notably transforming the National Military Establishment into the Department of Defense and refining the roles of key defense and intelligence agencies.
-
D.
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is a U.S. federal law that governs the procedures for physical and electronic surveillance and collection of foreign intelligence information, particularly for national security and counterintelligence purposes.
-
E.
Reynolds v. United States
Reynolds v. United States is an 1879 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the distinction between protected religious belief and regulable religiously motivated conduct, holding that the Free Exercise Clause does not excuse individuals from compliance with otherwise valid criminal laws such as those banning polygamy.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (59)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | United States federal statute ⓘ |
| amendedBy |
Espionage Act of 1917
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Sedition Act of 1918
|
| areaOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
criminal law ⓘ military law ⓘ |
| chamberInvolved |
United States House of Representatives
ⓘ
United States Senate ⓘ |
| codifiedIn | Title 18 of the United States Code ⓘ |
| controversy |
alleged conflict with First Amendment free speech protections
ⓘ
use against journalists and publishers ⓘ use against political dissenters ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| dateEnacted | 1917-06-15 ⓘ |
| enactedIn | World War I ⓘ |
| hasBeenAmended | true ⓘ |
| historicalUse |
prosecution of anti-war activists during World War I
ⓘ
prosecution of leakers of classified information ⓘ prosecution of whistleblowers ⓘ |
| inspiredBy |
concerns about disloyalty during World War I
ⓘ
concerns about wartime sabotage ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States government
ⓘ
surface form:
United States federal government
|
| legalDoctrineInfluenced | clear and present danger test ⓘ |
| maximumPenalty | death in certain cases ⓘ |
| passedBy | United States Congress ⓘ |
| penaltyIncludes |
fines
ⓘ
imprisonment ⓘ |
| presidentAtEnactment | Woodrow Wilson ⓘ |
| primaryCodificationSection |
18 U.S.C. § 793
ⓘ
18 U.S.C. § 794 ⓘ 18 U.S.C. § 798 ⓘ |
| prohibits |
conveying false reports to interfere with the military
ⓘ
interference with military operations ⓘ interference with military recruitment ⓘ support for U.S. enemies in wartime ⓘ unauthorized communication of national defense information ⓘ unauthorized retention of national defense information ⓘ |
| publicLawNumber | 40-24 ⓘ |
| relatedLegislation |
Sedition Act of 1918
ⓘ
Smith Act ⓘ USA PATRIOT Act ⓘ |
| sectionFocus | Section 3 on interference with the draft ⓘ |
| signedBy | Woodrow Wilson ⓘ |
| statutesAtLargeCitation | 40 Stat. 217 ⓘ |
| stillInForce | true ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
classified information
ⓘ
espionage ⓘ military operations ⓘ national security ⓘ wartime censorship ⓘ |
| usedInCase |
Abrams v. United States
ⓘ
Debs v. United States ⓘ Frohwerk v. United States ⓘ New York Times Co. v. United States ⓘ Schenck v. United States ⓘ United States v. Chelsea Manning ⓘ United States v. Daniel Ellsberg ⓘ United States v. Edward Snowden ⓘ United States v. Julian Assange ⓘ |
| yearIntroduced | 1917 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Subject: Espionage Act of 1917 Description of subject: The Espionage Act of 1917 is a U.S. federal law enacted during World War I that criminalizes interference with military operations, support for U.S. enemies, and certain forms of dissent, and has been widely used and debated in national security and free speech cases.
Referenced by (29)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.