Logan Act
The Logan Act was passed following Senator George Logan’s unauthorized negotiations with France in 1798. Only two people have ever been indicted on charges of violating the Act, one in 1802 and the other in 1852. The penalty for violation of the Act was changed in 1994 to impose a fine of $5,000 on anyone convicted of violating it.
About Logan Act in brief
The Logan Act was passed following Senator George Logan’s unauthorized negotiations with France in 1798. It was signed into law by President John Adams on January 30, 1799. Violation of the Logan Act is a felony. Only two people have ever been indicted on charges of violating the Act, one in 1802 and the other in 1852. During the nineteenth century, the act lay dormant, partly because American foreign policy receded in importance. In the twentieth century, there have been more cases involving private individuals becoming more of a prominent issue in politics, with the possibility of American policy being influenced by foreign policy. The Logan Act has been rarely enforced, possibly because prosecutors have possibly been concerned that speech between a private citizen and a foreign government may still qualify as free speech and be protected by the First and Fifth amendments to the Constitution. The penalty for violation of the Act was changed in 1994, changing the penalty from \”fined USD 5,000\” to “fined under this title”; this appears to be the only amendment to the Act. The intent behind the Act is to prevent unauthorized negotiations from undermining the government’s position. In 1798, amid tensions between the U.S. and France, President Adams sent three envoys to France to negotiate. Negotiations were unsuccessful.
Despite the apparent success of Logan’s mission, his activities aroused the opposition of the Federalist Party in Congress, who were resentful of the praise showered on Logan by oppositional Democratic-Republican newspapers. Logan himself was appointed and then elected as a Democratic- Republican to the United States Senate from Pennsylvania, and served from July 13, 1801, to March 3, 1807. He was unsuccessful in getting the Logan act repealed, but was successful in 1810 on a private diplomatic mission as an emissary to England in the outbreak of the 1812 War of 1812. In 1810, Logan went to England as an envoy to the British government. He died in London in 1812, and was succeeded by his son-in-law, Robert Logan, who went on to serve in the House of Representatives and the Senate until he was elected to the presidency in 1828. He is survived by his wife, Mary Logan, and his daughter, Anne Logan, a former First Lady of Pennsylvania. The Act was amended in 1994 to impose a fine of $5,000 on anyone convicted of violating it. It is unclear whether the Act has ever been enforced. It has never been enforced because of the Supreme Court’s view that private correspondence between private citizens and foreign governments should be protected under the First Amendment.
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This page is based on the article Logan Act published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
