Legal constraints shaped which group bore the postwar anti-radical attack

Evidence

The federal government, however, had no similar powers to cast anyone into prison simply for his beliefs or associations. The Espionage and Sedition Acts had enabled federal officials to outdo the states in this respect while America was fighting Germany, but the authority conferred by these statutes lapsed with the end of hostilities. The United States government possessed only one legal instrument for stamping on the propaganda activities which the postwar radicals conducted. It could deport the foreigners who supposedly were causing all the trouble; or, rather, it could deport those who had not acquired citizenship. This limitation on federal power tended to accentuate the anti-foreign emphasis in the Red Scare, for the whole weight of the distinctively national attack on radicalism fell upon the immigrants. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1361

Categorization

• XREF: Institutional-structure mechanism mirrors Milgrom/Shapiro’s point that legal design channels enforcement targets — here the channel runs to immigrants rather than citizen radicals. — connects to: Totalitarian radicalization accelerates with war and defeat rather than being checked by them — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 925; Military defeat incited rather than checked totalitarian radicalization

Broader Connections

• Totalitarian radicalization accelerates with war and defeat rather than being checked by them #complicates (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 925
• Military defeat incited rather than checked totalitarian radicalization #qualifies (0.72)