United States v. Rosen
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
445 F. Supp. 2d 602 (2006)
Steven Rosen and Keith Wiessman (defendants), lobbyists for a pro-Israel organization, developed relationships with government officials who had access to sensitive information, then obtained and deliberately transmitted that information, concerning terrorist activity in Asia and U.S. Middle East strategy, to unauthorized recipients including journalists and foreign officials. Charged under the Espionage Act's provisions criminalizing transmission of national-defense information (NDI) to unauthorized persons and conspiracy to do so, the defendants challenged § 793 as violating their First Amendment right to free speech.
Whether the government may restrain leaks of classified national-security information through espionage prosecutions.