Espionage, AIPAC and the First Amendment

Here is an excellent comment from Undernews on how the New York Times is trying to spin the AIPAC case – obviously a case of pure espionage - as an assault on freedom of the press, even though the defendants aren’t journalists.  Is espionage protected by the First Amendment?  The allegation is that the defendants met in secret to obtain classified American intelligence documents concerning Iran, in order to eventually pass such documents to, amongst others, an espionage agent for a foreign country.  If that kind of activity is protected by the U. S. Constitution, the concept of espionage doesn’t exist in the United States.