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Interpreting and Preserving the Constitution
mitted in the name of ‘‘Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity,’’ hoped through
this legislation to prevent the spread of French radicalism to American
shores.
Known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts, these measures
consisted of four laws. The first three, directed in reality against French
citizens, sought to limit the right of aliens to acquire U.S. citizenship.
They authorized the President to expel aliens suspected of ‘‘treasonable
or secret machinations against the government’’ and to apprehend them
in case of war. The fourth law, outlawing seditious libel, made it a Federal crime to utter or print ‘‘false, scandalous or malicious’’ statements
against the Federal government, either house of Congress, or the President, or to bring them into disrepute, stir up sedition, excite against them
‘‘the hatred of the good people of the United States,’’ or encourage ‘‘any
hostile designs of any foreign nation against the United States.’’
In response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, the States of Virginia and
Kentucky passed resolutions declaring the Acts unconstitutional. The
Virginia Resolutions of 1798 were drafted by James Madison and introduced in the Virginia legislature by John Taylor of Caroline. The Kentucky Resolutions, written by Thomas Jefferson (also of Virginia), were
introduced in the Kentucky legislature by John Breckinridge.
Madison and Jefferson objected to the Alien and Sedition Acts on the
grounds that they usurped the reserved powers of the States. Congress
had no delegated power, they argued, over aliens residing under the jurisdiction and protection of State laws. By authorizing the President to
expel such persons ‘‘without jury, without public trial, without confrontation of the witnesses against him, without having witnesses in his favor, without defense, [and] without counsel,’’ this legislation also denied
persons their liberty without due process of law and their procedural
rights under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments.
Objections to the Sedition Act stemmed from the fact that the Congress had no authority under the First Amendment to regulate speech
and press, and Federal tribunals therefore had no jurisdiction over cases
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