In the early years of American politics it was the Federalists who held power in the new American executive and Congress. The Federalists feared the inflow of new immigrants into America were placing them at a political disadvantage. Since most new immigrants were European and had fled tyrannical governments their politics were Republican.
At the time US Citizenship only had a two year residency requirement. The Federalists in response to this nature of immigration extended the residency requirement to five years and then in 1798 to fourteen years.
Two statutes followed those citizenship changes to halt the enemy within. The Alien Enemies Act and the Alien Friends Act. Under the enemies act citizens of a nation the US was at war at could be locked up or deported. The Friends Act enabled the President to lock up or deport any non-citizen deemed dangerous to the United States.
Stone writes:
Under this legislation, the individual had no right to a hearing, to be informed of the charges against him, or to present evidence on his behalf. The act vested absolute power over such persons in the president.
Those two acts were prior to the Sedition Act of 1798 which is a well known historical piece of legislative tyranny.
It is remarkable that we keep fighting these same battles over and over. The
Australian Migration Act vested absolute power in the executive through the Minister - which we saw used in the
Haneef instance.
Government keeps granting itself these powers under the auspices of an alien enemy within and then abuses that absolute authority almost immediately. This is why a Bill of Rights and explicit Constitutionalism to enforce limited government are so necessary.
Government quite simply cannot be granted or trusted with those powers in a liberal democracy.
Most Popular on South Sea Republic
The articles that have been viewed the most:
Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Alternate Australian Constitutions
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
Archives For South Sea Republic
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
Who Is Cam Riley
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
Websites Worth Reading
Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
