From: azur@netcom.com (Steve Schear)
Date: Sun, 15 Sep 1996 11:48:37 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Alien and Sedition Acts [WAS xs4all.nl] then Terrorists
Message-ID: <v02130501ae6059f09b13@[10.0.2.15]>
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Look for something along these lines from Congress in the not too distant
future.  All in our best interest, of course.  (from 'In Pursuit of Reason:
The Life of Thomas Jefferson, Nobel E. Cunningham, Jr.)

"The first alien act (June 25, 1798) empowered the president to order the
deportation of any alien he judged "dangerous to the peace and saftey of
the united State" or had reasonable grounds to suspect was involved in any
trasonable intrigue against the government.  It was up to the president to
determine what constituted a danger."

"Even more sweeping and more objectionable to Republican opponents of the
administration was the sedition act (July 14, 1798).  Passed in the final
days of of the session, after Jefferson had left for Virginia, the act made
it unlawful for any person to combine or conspire together to oppose any
lawful measure of the government, to prevent any officer of the united
States from performing his duties, or to aid or attempt to procure 'any
insurrection, roit, unlawful assembly, or combination.' Furthermore, it
provided for the punishment of any person writing, uttering, or publishing
'any false, scandalous and malicious writing' against the president, the
Congress of the government of the united States, made with the intent to
defame them or exite against them 'the hatred of the good people of the
united States.'"

>At Mon, 9 Sep 1996 17:54:29 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote:
>
>>     Then again, the only reason I am not a terrorist is that the government
>>hasn't YET defined hate speach directed against the government to be
>>terrorism.
>
>Don't be so hasty in saying this.
>
>A couple of months ago Clinton signed some sort of bill having to do with
>terrorism, terrorist organizations, funding of same, and deportation of
>alien-units suspected of being allied with terrorist organizations. (I seem
>to recall another such act being passed in early 1995, so there may be more
>than one of these things...)
>
>Given the mounting hysteria about terrorism (by the government, at least),
>and given the various laws on the books, I would not be surprised to see
>some Web sites prosecuted as "harboring" terrorists terrorist-symps.
>
>If any of you are not citizens of the U.S., and are here on visas, I would
>give this some real serious thought. Of course, maybe deportation is a
>blessing in disguise.
>
>--Tim May