ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS

Alien and Sedition Acts.Hist. Four statutes passed in 1798 designed to silence critics of the

Federalist party by tightening residency requirements for citizenship, granting to the President the

power to jail aliens considered dangerous to the country, and restricting freedoms of the press and

speech  by  criminalizing  speech  hostile  to  the  government.  •  All  the  acts  had  expired  or  been

repealed by 1802. [Blacks Law 8th]