natualization, alien and sedition act articles?

Question

can anyone find newspapers articles that would violate the naturalization, alien or sedition acts if they were still active?

Answer 1

Well, to start off, no newspaper article is going to violate the first two. The Naturalization Act required aliens to spend 14 years in the country instead of 5 to become a citizen, while the Alien Act authorized the President to deport aliens for basically any reason.

The Sedition Act is the only one that impacted the press; it made it a crime to publish "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" against the government or its officials. It also made it illegal to "write, print, utter, or publish" anything critical of the president or Congress.

You should be able to find a goldmine of articles criticizing the President or Congress - just check the op-ed page of your local paper. Anything that disapproves of how either branch handled the Iraq war or the budget deficit, for example, would count. Good luck!