It involved the Espionage Act of 1917 and its use against Mihail Gorin, an intelligence agent from the Soviet Union, and Hafis Salich, a United States Navy employee who sold to Gorin information on Japanese activity in the U.S. Hafis Salich was a Georgian immigrant who had worked in the Berkeley Police Department and knew some Japanese.

[2] By 1938, Gorin persuaded Salich to sell him classified information from ONI covering US monitoring of Japanese officials and also private persons (Japanese-American citizens and resident aliens).

Salich agreed by justifying his action on the theory that Japan was a 'common enemy' of the Soviet Union and the United States.

Couple other members, Paul Nakadate and George Suzuki took esception (sic) to this remark and accused George Ohashi of being a communist and subsequently beat him up.Gorin and Salich were caught in late 1938, when Gorin left a spy note and cash in clothes sent for dry cleaning.

[1][3] Several important legal principles involving the Espionage Act were discussed in Justice Stanley Forman Reed's opinion for the Court: Gorin was cited in the 1971 case New York Times v. United States.