Why did leaders of the federalist party not appreciate that the alien and sedition acts undermined the constitution of the united states?

The leaders of the Federalist Party valued a strong central government. They pushed to pass acts like the Alien and Sedition acts in order to protect their party’s power. The Alien Act, for example, gave the President the power to deport anyone deemed “dangerous” - a very subjective measure. In this way, immigrants and generally anyone likely to be “Anti-Federalist” could be silenced or not permitted to bring opposition to the Federalist party. The short-term benefit of silencing their political opponents made the Federalists not appreciate the degree to which they were undermining the U.S. Constitution.