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Revolutions occur when a group of people decide to reject the laws enforced by their society. This is precisely the reason the American colonists revolted against British authority—they were unwilling to live under laws they found unjust.
You might assume that the heirs of revolutionaries would be cautious when creating their own laws. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Numerous U.S. lawmakers have passed bills and regulations that are morally questionable, violate citizens’ rights, or force their own controversial views onto the nation.
10. Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (officially the Tariff Act of 1930) is one of many nationalist laws passed by the United States. Its stated purpose was to shield American businesses and farmers from economic distress by increasing tariffs on over 20,000 goods by as much as 20 percent.
In an effort to stop the bill, more than 1,000 economists signed a petition urging President Herbert Hoover to veto it. However, Hoover refused, as his campaign had heavily promised to raise agricultural tariffs.
At the time, the stock market had just collapsed, and the world was entering what would come to be known as the Great Depression. Rather than providing the protection it was meant to, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act pushed the U.S. into a deeper crisis, dragging the rest of the world with it. Its most significant impact was arguably the damage it caused to international trade.
Thomas Lamont, a partner at J.P. Morgan, later remarked about the act: '[It] intensified nationalism all over the world.' Some have even suggested that the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act may have played a role in the rise of Adolf Hitler by exacerbating the Great Depression.
9. Espionage Act and Sedition Act
The Espionage Act of 1917 and the related Sedition Act of 1918 were enacted shortly after the United States entered World War I. The Espionage Act was a compromise between the U.S., which traditionally valued free speech, and Great Britain, which had imposed strict censorship laws on national security issues a few years earlier. Essentially, this law criminalized the transmission of information that could harm the nation’s war effort or benefit its adversaries.
In 1918, the Sedition Act extended the Espionage Act’s scope. It became a criminal offense to spread false information that hindered the war effort or to interfere with the production of goods vital to the war. It also made it illegal to insult the U.S. government, the flag, the Constitution, or the military. Defending these actions legally was also punishable by law.
During the first Red Scare, following World War I, these two laws were heavily enforced, especially by U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and his associate, J. Edgar Hoover. The Sedition Act was repealed after a few years, although significant parts of the Espionage Act are still in effect today.
8. Alien Registration Act of 1940 (also known as the Smith Act)
As the U.S. moved closer to entering World War II, lawmakers sought to eliminate any internal threats that might undermine the country. Their response was the Alien Registration Act of 1940, which made it a criminal offense to advocate for the overthrow of the government or to be a member of any group whose primary goal was to topple the government.
Additionally, all non-citizens living in the United States were required to register with the government, have their fingerprints recorded, carry identification papers at all times, and report their residential status annually.
Finally, any non-citizen found to have connections, even remotely, to a 'subversive organization' could be deported. Though the act has never been fully repealed, it has undergone several amendments after certain applications were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
7. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Similar to the actions of the Roman general and future dictator Sulla, who crossed the pomoerium (city limits) of Rome with his army—paving the way for figures like Julius Caesar—the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution of 1964 became a precedent for subsequent U.S. presidents seeking to engage in military conflict.
Before the United States entered the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese forces attacked two U.S. ships without provocation. Under mounting pressure from his Republican challenger, President Lyndon B. Johnson requested Congressional approval to obtain sweeping powers to safeguard U.S. interests in the region.
In 1964, nearly unanimously approved (with only two senators opposing), the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution quickly passed through Congress, granting the president authority to initiate military action without a formal declaration of war from Congress.
The resolution was repealed in 1971 when President Richard Nixon sought to escalate the conflict in Cambodia. Later investigations into the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which triggered the resolution’s passage, uncovered that some of the information provided to Congress was inaccurate, offering a sobering lesson and drawing parallels to the Iraq War.
6. Patriot Act
Enacted just weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Patriot Act was initially intended to assist the U.S. government in identifying and preventing potential terrorists before they could strike. However, it granted the government expansive powers that allowed them to spy on nearly every American and infringe upon citizens’ privacy rights.
In fact, when questioned by the Justice Department’s inspector general in 2015, the FBI admitted they could not identify a single major terrorism case that had been solved with the help of the Patriot Act.
Instead, programs like the NSA’s phone metadata program were introduced. The agency argued that this initiative helped trace connections between suspected terrorists and terrorist organizations. While some governmental overreaches have been reduced in recent years, many of these powers still persist, not to mention the government's international surveillance operations.
5. Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
In the 1830s, abolitionists in the North began to unite into a more formidable movement, which alarmed slave owners in the South. A Fugitive Slave Act already existed, giving local authorities the power to capture runaway slaves and return them to their owners.
However, those in the South felt that the law wasn’t strict enough. They were also concerned that Northerners might aid in hiding runaway slaves, which they found intolerable.
To address the concerns of Southerners and their threats of secession, the government passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 as part of the "Compromise of 1850." This severe, proslavery law required citizens to assist in the capture of runaway slaves.
Those who refused to comply or helped a runaway slave faced a fine of $1,000 and six months in jail. Furthermore, the act denied slaves the right to a jury trial. When the Civil War erupted, the process to repeal the law was put on hold until 1864, when Congress finally abolished it.
4. Black Codes
The Black Codes, a series of laws passed in several Southern states in 1865–66, served as a precursor to the more widely known Jim Crow laws. Although freedom was a step up from slavery for African Americans, they still faced persistent racism. In fact, some might argue that the situation has not improved as much as it should have.
Under the Black Codes, African Americans were forced to sign annual labor contracts. Failure to sign these oppressive contracts led to arrests for vagrancy and mandatory, unpaid labor. The laws also prevented blacks from serving on juries and restricted their freedom to travel, echoing similar restrictions from the Revolutionary era.
President Andrew Johnson, who ascended to the presidency following Abraham Lincoln's assassination, was a Southerner and a staunch advocate for states' rights. He believed that the South had the right to treat African Americans however they wished, as long as they were not enslaved.
It wasn't until the Radical Reconstruction period that conditions for African Americans in the South began to improve. During this time, Republicans effectively overruled President Johnson, enacting the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and other key measures.
3. Public Law 503
President Franklin Roosevelt had previously authorized Executive Order 9066, granting military officials the power to detain anyone perceived as a threat to the war effort. However, Roosevelt and his administration realized that a more formal and lasting measure was necessary, leading to one of the darkest episodes in U.S. history: the unlawful internment of over 127,000 Japanese-American citizens during the 1940s.
Driven by the mistaken belief that Japanese Americans would all return to Japan if the U.S. were invaded, and because many lived along the West Coast, internment camps were established in the interior of the country. Shockingly, nearly two-thirds of those detained were born in America and had never even visited Japan.
Although Public Law 503 was contested in the Supreme Court, the Court upheld its constitutionality, citing the need for wartime security. After the war, many former detainees faced difficulties returning to their homes, with some cities putting up signs that explicitly rejected them. It wasn't until 1988 that Congress made an attempt at redress, offering $20,000 to each surviving internee as a token of apology.
2. Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act is yet another reason why Andrew Jackson is often regarded as one of the worst U.S. presidents in history. A staunch proponent of what he termed 'Indian removal,' Jackson had previously led efforts against various tribes, taking their land and redistributing it to white farmers during his tenure as an army general.
Upon becoming president, Jackson continued his campaign, enacting the Indian Removal Act in 1830. This law granted the federal government the power to seize Native American land east of the Mississippi River and offer them land on the western side of the river.
While the law stipulated that Jackson and his forces were supposed to engage in peaceful negotiations with the tribes, this directive was frequently disregarded. The resulting expulsion is most famously remembered as the 'Trail of Tears.' For instance, of the 15,000 Choctaws displaced from their homeland, around 2,500 perished during the relocation.
Incredibly, Jackson convinced himself that he was executing a 'wise and humane policy' meant to preserve the Native American tribes from the threat of extinction.
1. Alien and Sedition Acts
In the wake of the American Revolution, with the Constitution and its rights still fresh in the minds of many, the president and Congress quickly decided to undermine it. Driven by fear of a potential French threat, the U.S. government enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798.
These laws granted the government sweeping new powers, including the authority to deport foreign nationals. One member of Congress expressed concerns, saying there was no need to 'invite hordes of Wild Irishmen, nor the turbulent and disorderly of all the world, to come here with a basic view to distract our tranquility.' (It’s worth noting that immigrants were more likely to support the opposition party.)
The Alien and Sedition Acts also violated the First Amendment, making it illegal to publish false statements against the government. Additionally, inciting opposition to any actions taken by Congress or the president was made a criminal offense.
Although no foreign nationals were actually deported under these laws, 10 individuals were convicted under the Sedition Act. With a change in the political landscape and the diminished threat of war, most of these laws were repealed a few years later.
