How Did The Alien And Sedition Acts Violate The Constitution
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
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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
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