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COMPONENT LAWS There were actually four separate laws making up what is commonly referred to as the "Alien and Sedition Acts": # The ''Alien Enemies Act'' authorized the president to imprison (or deport) any alien from an enemy nation (one the United States was fighting). # The ''Alien Friends Act'' authorized the president to deport any alien considered dangerous, in both war and peacetime. # The '' Naturalization Act '' extended the duration of residence required for aliens to become citizens, nearly tripling it from five years to 14. # The ''Sedition Act'' made it a crime to publish "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" against the government or its officials. HISTORY With war looming against a major power, France , Federalist s in Congress , in 1798, passed the laws to protect National Security in the United States. They were similar to, but not as stringent as laws passed at about the same time in the United Kingdom and Canada in response to the threat of subversion by agents of the Radical French Government . Jeffersonian s, however, recognized that the laws were to be used as a tool of the ruling Federalist party to extend and retain their power, Silencing Any Opposition . Because most immigrants became Democratic-Republicans, the Naturalization Act's longer residency requirement meant that fewer of them could become citizens and vote against the Federalists. Under the Alien and Alien Enemies Acts, the president could deport any "dangerous" or "enemy" alien — a law that is still in effect in 2006. Under the Sedition Act, anyone "opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States" could be imprisoned for up to two years. It was also illegal to "write, print, utter, or publish" anything critical of the president or Congress. It was notable that the Act did not prohibit criticism of the Vice-President. Jefferson held the office of Vice-President at the time the Act was passed so the law left him open to attack. While it appears harsh to current Americans, the act was actually much more lenient than the traditional British law of Seditious Libel . For instance:
Despite these modifications, however, Jeffersonians denounced the Sedition Act as a violation of the First Amendment of the United States Bill Of Rights , which protected the right of Free Speech . To Jefferson and Madison, it was not that they disagreed with it violating free speech; it was the method by which it was passed. The First Amendment clearly states that "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech." Therefore, the matter should be left up to the states to decide, not Congress. Although the Federalists hoped the Act would muffle the opposition, Democratic-Republicans still "wrote, printed, uttered and published" their criticisms of the Federalists. Indeed, they strongly criticised the act itself, and used it as an election issue. The act expired when the term of President Adams ended in 1800. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison opposed the Acts, and drafted the Kentucky And Virginia Resolutions in protest, calling on the states to, in effect, veto federal legislation. Key to these resolutions was the Compact Theory, which states that the United States are made up of a voluntary union of States that agree to give up some of their soverignty in order to join the union. Therefore, states can determine if the federal government has gone too far. Most other states saw this theory as destructive towards the union. Ultimately the Acts backfired against the Federalists; President Adams himself never supported the laws or used them. No aliens were actually deported, and only ten people were ever convicted of sedition. Although the United States Supreme Court never ruled on the validity of any of the Alien and Sedition acts, subsequent mentions of the Sedition Act in particular in Supreme Court opinions have assumed that it was unconstitutional. For example in the seminal Free Speech case of '' New York Times V. Sullivan '', the Court declared, "Although the Sedition Act was never tested in this Court, the attack upon its validity has carried the day in the court of history." 376 U.S. 254, 276 (1964). FULL TITLES
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