When confronted with the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts on July 14, 1798, which Thomas Jefferson and James Madison viewed as an untrammeled attack on the fundamental rights of freedom of speech and freedom of the press, as well as the republican system itself, they turned to familiar constitutional guardrails — Americans’ fierce defense of their rights, public opinion and the powers of individual states — to preserve our foundational liberties.

The Federalists’ hysteria about supposed French influence in American politics led to prosecution under the terms of the Sedition Act, despite First Amendment guarantees ratified just seven years earlier, for criticism “bringing either Congress or the President (John Adams) into contempt or disrepute.” Federalist prosecutors took dead aim a

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