{ "title": "Incidents: secrets and espionage laws in the United States, state or province level", "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents?country=US&tactic=secrets_and_espionage_laws&level=state_or_province", "filters": { "country": "US", "tactic": "secrets_and_espionage_laws", "level": "state_or_province" }, "sort": "date", "count": 2, "page": 1, "pages": 1, "per_page": 50, "counts_caveat": "The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.", "facets": { "country": [ { "value": "US", "label": "United States", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" } } ], "continent": [ { "value": "north-america", "label": "North America" } ], "tactic": [ { "value": "secrets_and_espionage_laws", "label": "Secrets and espionage laws", "count": 2 }, { "value": "detention_and_violence", "label": "Detention and violence", "count": 1 } ], "stage": [ { "value": "punish", "label": "Punish", "count": 1 }, { "value": "silence", "label": "Silence", "count": 1 } ], "level": [ { "value": "state_or_province", "label": "State or province", "count": 2 } ], "outcome": [ { "value": "reversed", "label": "Reversed", "count": 1 }, { "value": "upheld", "label": "Upheld by a court", "count": 1 } ], "leader": [ { "value": "al-smith", "label": "Alfred E. Smith" }, { "value": "bob-martinez", "label": "Bob Martinez" } ], "era": [ { "value": "1990s", "label": "1990s", "count": 1 }, { "value": "1920s", "label": "1920s", "count": 1 } ], "year": [ { "value": "1925", "label": "1925", "count": 1 }, { "value": "1990", "label": "1990", "count": 1 } ], "has_case": [ { "value": "0", "label": "without a court case", "count": 2 } ] }, "results": [ { "slug": "1990-us-butterworth-v-smith-grand-jury-secrecy", "title": "United States Supreme Court strikes down Florida law barring a reporter from discussing his own grand jury testimony", "occurred_on": "1990-03-21", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "jurisdiction": "US-FL", "level": "state_or_province", "tactic_primary": "secrets_and_espionage_laws", "tactics": [ "secrets_and_espionage_laws" ], "leader_slug": "bob-martinez", "leader_name": "Bob Martinez", "issue_of_the_day": "Smith's reporting concerned alleged wrongdoing inside the Charlotte County State Attorney's Office and Sheriff's Department, which a special prosecutor and a state grand jury were investigating.", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "1990-03-21", "outcome_note": "The Supreme Court held unanimously that Florida's ban violated the First Amendment as applied to a witness who wanted to discuss his own testimony after the grand jury's term had ended.", "stage": "silence", "ladder_note": null, "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "era": "1990s", "granularity": "anchor", "status": "historical", "case_count": 0, "summary": "In 1990, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down a Florida law that threatened newspaper reporter Michael Smith with criminal prosecution for discussing his own testimony before a state grand jury investigating local officials. The Court ruled unanimously that a state may not ban a grand jury witness from disclosing his own testimony once the grand jury's term has ended.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1990-us-butterworth-v-smith-grand-jury-secrecy" }, { "slug": "1925-us-supreme-court-upholds-gitlow-anarchy-conviction", "title": "United States: Supreme Court upholds Benjamin Gitlow's conviction under New York's Criminal Anarchy Law, 1925", "occurred_on": "1925-06-08", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "jurisdiction": "US-NY", "level": "state_or_province", "tactic_primary": "secrets_and_espionage_laws", "tactics": [ "detention_and_violence", "secrets_and_espionage_laws" ], "leader_slug": "al-smith", "leader_name": "Alfred E. Smith", "issue_of_the_day": "Fears of growing socialist and union activity during the Red Scare that followed the First World War led Congress and state legislatures, including New York's, to adopt new restrictions on radical speech and publishing.", "outcome": "upheld", "outcome_on": "1925-06-08", "outcome_note": "The Supreme Court's decision upheld Gitlow's conviction and New York's Criminal Anarchy Law while establishing that free speech and press protections apply to state governments through the Fourteenth Amendment.", "stage": "punish", "ladder_note": null, "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "era": "1920s", "granularity": "anchor", "status": "historical", "case_count": 0, "summary": "The United States Supreme Court voted seven to two on June 8, 1925 to uphold the conviction of socialist publisher Benjamin Gitlow, who had been tried and sentenced to prison under New York's 1902 Criminal Anarchy Law for distributing 16,000 copies of the Left Wing Manifesto. The Court also held for the first time that the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause extends free speech and press protections to state governments.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1925-us-supreme-court-upholds-gitlow-anarchy-conviction" } ], "downloads": { "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents?country=US&tactic=secrets_and_espionage_laws&level=state_or_province&format=csv", "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents.json?country=US&tactic=secrets_and_espionage_laws&level=state_or_province", "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents.md?country=US&tactic=secrets_and_espionage_laws&level=state_or_province" }, "license": { "name": "CC BY 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" } }