Immigrants and the Right to Petition - NYU Law Review

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Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. School of Law NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 78:667 5. Alien, Sedition, and Naturalization Act Petitions, 1798-1804 A different sort of noncitizen petitioning was prompted by congressional enactment of anti-immigrant legislation in 1798.261 The Alien Act empowered the President to deport any noncitizen he judged to be a danger to the public or suspected of conspiring against the government. 262 The Sedition Act criminalized, among other things, "unlawful assembly" and the publication of false or malicious writing against the government. 263 The Alien Enemies Act, which remains in force, authorizes the President during wartime to arrest, imprison, or deport noncitizens deemed dangerous. 264 Finally, the Naturalization Act significantly extended the residency requirements for obtaining citizenship. 2 65 One historian of early American petitioning described these enactments as together "creat[ing] the first minor flood of petitions to descend upon Congress," 2 66 both for a general repeal and for individual relief. The laws were immediately controversial and not just with the Jeffersonian opponents of the Federalists. The Virginia and Kentucky Resolves famously condemned the Alien and Sedition Acts, 267 the Supreme Court has termed them unconstitutional, 68 and contemporary scholars nearly uniformly view them as such. 269 261 For an account of the debates that produced these statutes, see Neuman, supra note 73, at 52-60. 262 Act of June 25, 1798, ch. 58, 1 Stat. 570, 570-71. 263 Act of July 14, 1798, ch. 74, 1 Stat. 596, 596-97. 264 Act of July 6, 1798, ch. 66, 1 Stat. 577 (current version at 50 U.S.C. §§ 21-23 (2000)). 265 In 1795, Congress had established a five-year residency requirement for the naturalization of a "free white person," Act of Jan. 29, 1795, ch. 20, 1 Stat. 414, but the Federalists, seeking to maintain political power and concluding that noncitizens were a significant source of antifederalist sentiment, extended the rule to a fourteen-year residency requirement. Act of June 18, 1798, ch. 54, 1 Stat. 566. See Neuman, supra note 73, at 52-53 (describing Federalist reaction to "importation of dangerous revolutionary ideas from France"). The Naturalization Act of 1798 was repealed in 1802. Act of Apr. 14, 1802, ch. 28, 2 Stat. 153. The five-year residency requirement was restored and remains the basic rule. See 8 U.S.C. § 1427(a) (2000). 266 Don L. Smith, The Right to Petition for Redress of Grievances: Constitutional Development and Interpretation 112 (1971) (unpublished dissertation, available at Univ. Microfilms Int'l, 1986). 267 See Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Resolutions of 1798, reprinted in 4 Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution 528 (photo. reprint 1941) (Jonathan Elliot ed., 2d ed. Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott 1888) [hereinafter Debates on Adoption]; Thomas Jefferson, Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and 1799, reprinted in Debates on Adoption, supra, at 540. 268 N.Y. Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 276 (1964) ("Although the Sedition Act was never tested in this Court, the attack upon its validity has carried the day in the court of history."); see also Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577, 626 (1992) (Souter, J., concurring) (describing Alien and Sedition Acts as "patently unconstitutional by modern standards"). 269 See, e.g., Sullivan, 376 U.S. at 276 (gathering sources); Larry Kramer, Understanding Federalism, 47 Vand. L. Rev. 1485, 1519 (1994) (describing Alien and Sedition Acts as "about as clear an example of unconstitutional legislation as one could find").
Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. School of Law May 2003] IMMIGRANTS AND THE RIGHT TO PETITION Most significantly for present purposes, these acts induced petitioning by noncitizens. Many immigrants petitioned Congress for relief from the draconian provisions of the Naturalization Act, 270 and although Congress did not pass any private bills naturalizing the petitioners, 271 in 1802 it repealed the 1798 Naturalization Act and replaced it with relaxed residency requirements. 272 Congress also received numerous petitions against the Alien and Sedition Acts, many of which were no doubt from immigrants, 273 but both statutes expired without further legislation from Congress. 274 D. Conclusion At the Founding, as in modern times, a substantial number of the private bills passed by Congress were enacted in response to petitions by immigrants. 275 There is substantial historical evidence that noncitizens regularly exercised the right to petition colonial, state, and federal authorities, and often were successful in obtaining redress. These noncitizens ranged from indigent Acadian and Domingan refugees to European veterans and their families. The history of immigrant petitioning is not anomalous but rather comports with the experience of other subordinated persons, such as women, Native Americans, and free blacks, who, by petitioning, communicated their views to lawmakers and participated to some extent in the political life of English and early American society. Early congressional rules on petitioning contained no alienage classifications, and indeed the cause of various immigrant petitioners was taken up by leading figures of the 270 Smith, supra note 266, at 114 ("The main flood of petitions to Congress concerned the Naturalization Law and were primarily from aliens praying for relief."); see also 12 Annals of Cong. 97 (1803) (recording debate regarding allegedly disrespectful petitions from immigrants in Pennsylvania); id. at 465 (statement of Rep. Davis) (complaining of "never-ending petitions"); id. at 474-80 (showing debate regarding second set of immigrant petitions from Pennsylvania); 13 Annals of Cong. 232 (1804) (involving presentation of immigrant petitions from Baltimore). 271 The first private bill to naturalize a petitioner was not enacted until 1839. See Act of Feb. 13, 1839, ch. 23, 6 Stat. 750 (granting relief to Dr. John Campbell White, of Baltimore, in state of Maryland); Bernadette Maguire, Immigration: Public Legislation and Private Bills 3 (1997) (identifying White's as first naturalization petition granted by Congress). 272 Act of Apr. 14, 1802, ch. 28, 2 Stat. 153. 273 9 Annals of Cong. 2934-35 (1799) (statement of Rep. Livingston) (attempting to present "a number of petitions from the State of Vermont, praying for a repeal of the alien and sedition laws"); id. at 2957-58 (statement of Rep. Bard) (presenting Pennsylvania petitions against Alien and Sedition Acts); id. at 2959 (statement of Rep. Gallatin) (offering additional Pennsylvania petitions against Alien and Sedition Acts). 274 The Alien Act expired by its own terms in 1800. Act of June 25, 1798, ch. 58, § 6, 1 Stat. 570, 572. The Sedition Act followed, going out of force in 1801. Act of July 14, 1798, ch. 74, § 4, 1 Stat. 596, 597 (1798). 275 See Hopper & Osuna, supra note 180, at 3 (stating that from 1789 to 1997, Congress enacted over 7200 private immigration bills).
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Immigrants and the Right to Petition - NYU Law Review

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