by Elaine Cassel

Civil Liberties Watch

08/03/04

While pondering the fate of Washington, D.C. where I frequently work and play, as the government reacts to three-year old intelligence by closing streets, putting cops in riot gear on subways, and preparing to close down most federal buildings, I ran across a riveting piece of history: Virginia (my home state's) response to the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts, which provides for deportation of alients with unpopular beliefs and punishment of speech and press comments antithetical to the government. The essence of some of the Acts' provisions are echoed in today's Patriot and Homeland Security Acts.

Penned by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Virginia residents, the Virginia resolution rejects federal policies that threatened the Bill of Rights...

http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/ecassel/2004/08/03


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp