The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 restricted the activities of foreign residents in the country, allowed the government to deport foreigners deemed dangerous and limited the constitutional freedom of speech and of the press as an attempt to silence opposition to the government's actions, and allowed the President to imprison whoever openly opposed to those measures. Nowadays, many agree that those acts were a violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution for clearly limiting people's right to express.
