Alien and Sedition Acts
The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 were a set of four United States statutes that sought, on national security grounds, to restrict immigration and limit 1st Amendment protections for freedom of speech. They were endorsed by the Federalist Party of President John Adams as a response to a developing dispute with the French Republic and to related fears of domestic political subversion. The prosecution of journalists under the Sedition Act rallied public support for the opposition Democratic-Republicans, and contributed to their success in the elections of 1800. Under the new administration of Thomas Jefferson, only the Alien Enemies Act, granting the president powers of detention and deportation of foreigners in wartime or in face of a threatened invasion, remained in force.
| Act | Purpose | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Naturalization Act of 1798 | To increase the requirements to seek citizenship. | Repealed in 1802. |
| Alien Friends Act of 1798 | To allow the president to imprison and deport foreigners. | Expired in 1800. |
| Alien Enemies Act of 1798 | To give the president additional powers to detain foreigners during times of war, invasion, or predatory incursion. | Amended in 1918 to have gender-neutral applicability, currently codified at sections 4067 through 4070 of the Revised Statutes (50 U.S.C. 21 et seq.). |
| Sedition Act of 1798 | To criminalize false and/or malicious statements about the federal government. | Expired in 1800. |
After 1800, and up until the second presidency of Donald Trump, the surviving Alien Enemies Act was invoked three times, in each case during the course of a declared war: the War of 1812, and the First and Second World Wars.
Of these four invocations, the Alien Enemies Act is best known as the legal authority behind the internment of German Americans during both World Wars, as well as internment of Italian Americans and, to a lesser extent, Japanese Americans during the Second World War.
In March 2025, President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act as his authority for expediting deportation of foreigners and this invocation is subject to ongoing litigation.