"...that is shall be lawful for the president of the united states at any time during the continuance of this act, to order all such aliens as he shall judge dangerous to the peace and safety of the united states, or shall have reasonable grounds to suspect are concerned in any treasonable or secret machinations against the government thereof to depart out of the territory of the united states...and if any alien so removed out of the united states by the president shall voluntarily return thereto, unless by permission of the president of the united states, such alien on conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned so long as, in the opinion of the president, the public safety may require."the alien and sedition act of 1798 section 1._________________________________an act aimed mostly at french and irish immigrants since they were both usually catholic and likely to support thomas jefferson and the democratic-republicans in the upcoming preisdential election this places the president ( namely john adams ) in a position of arbitrary power over who belonged and who did not ( "he shall judge"..."in the opinion of the president"...and define "reasonable grounds as well as explaining why it nullifies the precept of habeas corpus )...that this violates the constitution is obvious...in the "virginia resolution" james madison ( a "founder" central to the creation of the constitution who, presumably, knew what he meant as he helped to frame it ) said there was a need to "...protest against the palpable and alarming infractions of the constitution, in the two late cases of the 'alien and sedition acts' ( and we will be getting to the "sedition" part in another post )passed at the last session of congress, the first of which exercises a power no where delegated to the federal government, and which by uniting legislative and judicial powers to those of the executive, subverts the general principles of free government..."...one senses, depending on the outcome of the next presidential election...that there is a forthcoming redefinition of "belonging" since don trump maintians he intends to deport between 15 and 20 million "illegal aliens" and that he is prepared to utilize the military ( in his words "the national guard" ) and military bases to do so...some of his acolytes have suggested creating "detention camps" as an alternative and that phraseology is dangerously close to "concentration camp" as well as some of the phraseology don has used to describe the intended deportees as "poisoning the blood of our country" which is a step away from the term "vermin"...this may not be fascism however it is definitely unconstitutional ( at least in madison's vision of the document ) and authoritarian...and, to paraphrase kurt vonnegut, once that barbed wire goes up do you suppose it will ever come down? not while there are "internal enemies " ( and they will materialize...authoritarians need enemies...ask nixon ) who may, in a misguided and soft-hearted fashion, disagree with these measures...legislative sleight of hand has been used to before to rationalize an authoritarian president...everything old could be new again...we will be getting to how this may be construed as "sedition" in another post.
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