In 1917, a couple months after the United States entered World War I, Congress enacted the Espionage Act. It made it a crime to cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military forces of the United States. Schenck was arrested and charged with conspiring to violate the act by sending two draftees a document opposing the draft and urging them not to submit to intimidation. The document did not explicitly advocate illegal resistance to the draft.
 
 

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