ipl-logo

How Did The Alien And Sedition Acts Violate The Constitution

566 Words3 Pages

President John Adams put the new Alien and Sedition Acts into play and the Democratic Republicans thought the new acts were unconstitutional. This leads to the big question. Did the Alien and Sedition Acts violate the Constitution? The answer is yes. The Alien and Sedition Acts violate several amendments of the Constitution. Some argue that the federal government was simply looking out for the well being and safety of the country, but all they were doing was giving themselves more power, originally set aside for the states. As a result, the new acts should be declared unconstitutional.
One reason that the acts were unconstitutional was the fact that they violated the tenth amendment. The tenth amendment states that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution are reserved to the States or the people.” (Kentucky Resolutions). In short, this means that if the Constitution does not directly give a power to the federal government, it automatically goes to the states and/or directly to the people. The reason this proves the acts unconstitutional is the fact that federal government was trying to take a power for themselves that was for the states. For example, the acts made it possible for the president to kick any foreign citizen out of the …show more content…

The first amendment states that “Congress cannot enact laws limiting ”the freedom of speech or press.”’ (Kentucky Resolutions) Again, in short, this amendment is saying that the federal government is not able to pass a law that takes away someone’s right to speak their opinion. Contrary to this amendment, the Federal government did exactly the opposite of what the amendment said was allowed. The acts, passed by John Adams, take away the human right of speaking what is on the mind and using what they say to show them off as a threat. Then the government uses the “threats” as a reason to create new

Show More
Related
536 Words | 3 Pages

According to the Tenth Amendment of the constitution, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”. There have been moments in history where Congress has implemented laws that states felt were unconstitutional. The Constitution gave states the ability to counter the federal government’s power through the Judiciary branch of government, when they feel a law is unconstitutional. The Founders of our nation gave Congress enumerated powers to pass legislation that needs to be abided by all states and citizens. At times Congress will overstep its powers by enacting laws that are unconstitutional and the states have the right to challenge those powers.

Read More
409 Words | 2 Pages

The Alien act and Sedition Act were two major laws passed by the Federalist Congress in 1798. Both of them caused major social and rights conflicts within the colonies by jailing people who protested the government, deporting innocent immigrants and having no freedom of the press. The Alien act of 1798 allowed immigrants living in the US to be arrested or deported without trial if they were assumed to be dangerous, or in other words, pro french. It also affected the immigrants right to vote. Previously, Individuals were required to live in the US for at least five years before voting, now they had to live in the US for at least 14 years.

Read More
411 Words | 2 Pages

The United States of America took a risk when they passed the 4 bills on the Alien and Sedition acts of 1798. During 1798, the United States of America was on the verge of declaring war against France. Taking the ideas and giving the bills to John Adams to pass them, the Federalist-controlled congress wanted to strengthen national security during undeclared war. The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed to get ready for anticipated war. The government limited the freedom of speech citizens had and tightened restrictions on foreign-born Americans.

Read More
1159 Words | 5 Pages

These authorities that the national government should have, were all up to the states to decide under the Articles. With the taking away some of the states rights in the Constitution, Anti-federalists feared that this would leave the states too weak, resulting in more problems. Under the new Constitution, many powers that were now in the government 's hands are: the power to levy and collect taxes, the power to regulate interstate commerce, the government set up a national court system consisting of district, circuit, and a supreme court, the government could enforce laws, there was now a house based on population, and a senate based on equal representation (two votes per state), to amend the Constitution, a ⅔ vote of Congress was needed, and a ¾ vote of the states were needed, and a majority rule was needed to pass bills. These new powers and abilities of the national government helped to create a strong, new

Read More
650 Words | 3 Pages

When our founding fathers were writing the constitution for our new nation, they looked at many different sources to gain thoughts on what they should include in the document. Some of the documents that the men looked at included the Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, and the English Bill of Rights. When the people in America decided that they needed to be able to have freedoms that the king wouldn’t let them have, they decided to break free of Great Britain. The Americans realized that in their new nation they wanted to make an establishment causing the government to have limited power over them because they wanted to be free.

Read More
573 Words | 3 Pages

In 1798 America believed that it was going to fight a war against France due to increased hostilities between the two nations. Meanwhile, America was also divided into two political groups, the Jeffersonian Republicans, and the Federalists. European immigrants often became pro-Jeffersonians because the group was more welcoming than the aristocratic Federalists who discriminated against poor immigrants. In 1798, the Federal Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts and presented them as laws meaning to protect the United States from threatening foreigners during the imminent war with France but the acts really intended to weaken the Jeffersonian Republicans. These acts were not only dishonestly introduced but also violated Americans’

Read More
205 Words | 1 Pages

The Alien and Sedition Acts passed four laws empowered the president to deport any foreigners who were suspected to be a threat to the security of the nation. The Federalists justified for the Alien and Sedition Acts, claiming that it was indispensable because the nation was on the brink of war, however, the true reason that they passed the Alien and Sedition Acts was to make sure Adams defeat Jefferson in the election (at that time people favored the Republican Party). The Republicans considered it to be unconstitutional because of its violation of the First Amendment and the freedom of speech. However, the Federalists justified that it was indispensable to stifle criticism of the government in time of war because if Americans lost their confidence

Read More
631 Words | 3 Pages

He also want to give rights to the immigrants that come to the country, that also the constitution do not have the right to take away their rights only because the people are immigrants, and the constitution have more power than the immigrants.  “These resolutions declared the Alien and Sedition Acts unconstitutional, for exceeding Congress’s constitutional powers at the expense of state powers and, in the case of the Sedition Act, for violating freedoms of press and speech.”  the impact of this is that Thomas is not only referring to the people that live in the country but also is protecting the people that immigrate to the country. This shows that the resolution was a great impact to the people who lived in the

Read More
266 Words | 2 Pages

Did the Alien Sedition act violate the constitution Did the alien sedition act violate the constitution, there is a lot of debate on this subject because people look at things from a different point of view and when they hear someone say something They don’t agree with it's they argue and debate on the subject. I believe the alien and sedition act was not going against the constitution because the immigrants came here illegally, they could have come legally if they just.signed some papers and took a little more time out of there lives but if they did need help maybe we should let them in so they could get money for their family. The act was wrong but I don’t think it should have happened they shouldn’t have put them in prison or sent them

Read More
118 Words | 1 Pages

By the way, did anyone ever tell you that the Constitution is unconstitutional? Yep, the whole thing. Or at least its ratification was illegal. This is not a joke, except to the degree that it is.

Read More
1461 Words | 6 Pages

The USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001) was a necessary and effective piece of legislation that enhanced the security of the nation and will continue, in a modified form, to prevent future terrorist attacks although it was quite intrusive on American’s civil liberties. According to detailed study of the decade following 9/11, “If we just look at the decade between 2001 and 2011, we still see that the number of terrorist attacks has declined since Sept. 11.” So, in terms of achieving its goal, it has been successful. Signed into law by President George W. Bush in October of 2001 in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States during

Read More
544 Words | 3 Pages

Anti-Federalist claimed that because the Constitution could make laws that for common defense and general welfare. In addition, the supremacy clause further removed the protection the states provided for the people by declaring all laws made by the United States supreme law of the land. The general welfare act rendered the government with absolute power to enact anything they saw fit and proper, which would slowly, thanks to the supremacy clause, annihilate the powers of the

Read More
460 Words | 2 Pages

The war fever made the political parties even more divided. People did not trust immigrants. Federalists thought the immigrants would back the Republicans. Congress passed the alien act that raised the time to live in the U.S. to be nationalized from 5 to 14 years (9 years longer) and gave the president the power to deport or imprison any alien he considered dangerous. People thought this was unfair, so Congress passed the sedition act (sedition is activity designed to overthrow government) that harshly limited free speech by making it illegal to write and say anything insulting, false, or with “bad intent” about the government.

Read More
530 Words | 3 Pages

The Importance of the 1st Amendment In 1787 our founding fathers assembled the constitution of the United States of America. Of this which contains the most important document to the American citizen, the Bill of rights. The first Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances” These freedoms granted by the Bill of Rights are often known as freedom of expression. These rights are most important to a truly free society. The first amendment provides us with new ideas and dismisses the fear of punishment

Read More
821 Words | 4 Pages

Through the course of United States history, the First Amendment is known by every sort of citizen. Whether from the firebranded activists on different sides of every heated political issue that graced our nation, or taught by passionate academics wishing to instill the grand philosophy behind it to young students, the First Amendment is widely recognized and understood as a concept by our nation. Eloquently described by Justice Holmes in United States v. Schwimmer, proclaimed the nature of the First Amendment in his dissent: Not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.” At its core, free speech is meant to be utilized by people of varying opinions. There are people, whether by nature or passion, who would use the safeguard of free speech in a way that is most detrimental not only society, but to the annals of scholars who longed observed its value.

Read More

More about How Did The Alien And Sedition Acts Violate The Constitution

Related Topics

Open Document