2194. DEPORTATION OF ALIENS, Sedition laws and.—
The imprisonment of a
person under the protection of the laws of
this Commonwealth [Kentucky], on his failure
to obey the simple order of the President
to depart out of the United States, as is undertaken
by * * * [the] act, intituled “An
Act concerning Aliens,” is contrary to the
Constitution, one amendment to which has
provided that “no person shall be deprived
of liberty without due process of law”; and
that another having provided, that “in all
criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy
the right to public trial, by an impartial jury,
to be informed of the nature and cause of the
accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses
against him, to have compulsory process
for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and
to have the assistance of counsel for his defence,
” the same act, undertaking to authorize
the President to remove a person out of the
United States, who is under the protection of
the law, on his own suspicion, without accusation,
without jury, without public trial,
without confrontation of the witnesses
against him, without hearing witnesses in
his favor, without defence, without counsel,
is contrary to the provision also of the
Constitution, is therefore not law, but utterly
void, and of no force; that transferring
the power of judging any person, who
is under the protection of the laws, from the
courts to the President of the United States,
as is undertaken by the same act concerning
aliens, is against the article of the Constitution
which provides that “the judicial power
of the United States shall be vested in courts,
the judges of which shall hold their offices
during good behavior;” and * * * the
said act is void for that reason also. And it
is further to be noted, that this transfer of
judiciary power is to that magistrate of the
General Government who already possesses
all the Executive, and a negative on all Legislative
powers.—
Kentucky Resolutions. Washington ed. ix, 467.
Ford ed., vii, 297.
(1798)
