In Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919), the Supreme Court upheld the 1918 Amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917, which made it a criminal offense to urge the curtailment of production of the materials necessary to wage World War I with intent to hinder the progress of the war. The defendants were convicted on the basis of two leaflets they printed and threw from windows of a building in New York City. The defendants were charged and convicted of inciting resistance to the war effort and urging curtailment of production of essential war material. They were sentenced to 10 and 20 years in prison. The Supreme Court ruled that the defendants' freedom of speech, protected by the First Amendment, was not violated.
