Signed by John Adams in the summer of 1798 amid the Quasi-War with France, the four Alien and Sedition Acts extended the naturalization period, authorized the president to detain or deport 'dangerous' non-citizens, and criminalized the publication of 'false, scandalous, and malicious' writings against the federal government. Federalist prosecutors used the Sedition Act to jail Republican newspaper editors and even a sitting congressman. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison responded with the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, arguing the acts were unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment. The Sedition Act expired in 1801; President Jefferson pardoned everyone convicted under it. Though never struck down by the Supreme Court, the episode became the textbook cautionary tale later invoked in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan as proof that seditious-libel prosecutions are incompatible with the First Amendment.