Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-26
UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
THE U. S. CIRCUIT COURT AGAINST THE
BINGHAM ORDINANCE.
The Chinese Cannot be Excluded From
a City-The San Francisco Ordi-
nance Unconstitutional.

At San Francisco yesterday Judge Lo-
reno Sawyer, in the United States Circuit
Court, handed down decision in the cases
of Lee Sing and Sing Tee Quong, other
wise known as the Bingham Ordinance
test cases, which he declares invalid and
unconstitutional. Judge Sawyer said:
article XIV, Section /, of the Constitu-
ton of the United States reads as follows:
Section l. All persons born or natural
lied in the United States, and subject to
the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
United States and of the State wherein
they reside. No State shall make or
enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of the citizens of
the United States, nor shall any State de-
prive any person of life, liberty or property.
without due process of law, nor deny to
any person within its jurisdiction the
equal protection of the laws"
Article VI of the Burlingame Treaty
provides: THAT Chinese subjects visiting
or residing in the United States shall enjoy
the same privileges, immunities and ex-
emptions in respect to travel or residence
as may there be enjoyed by the citizens or
subjects of the most favored nation"
Section 1897 of the Revised Statutes pro-
vides as follows: "All persons within the
jurisdiction of the United States shall have
the same right in every State and Territory
to make and enforce contracts; to sue par
ties, give evidence, and to the full and
equal bereft of all laws and proceedings
for the security of persons and property,
and shall be subject to like punishments,
pains, penalties, taxes, licenses and ex-
actions of every kind, and to no other"
Article VI, Section 2, of the National
Constitution provides that "the United
States Constitution and the laws of the
United States which shall be made in pur-
suance thereof, and all treaties made or
which shall be made under the authority
of the United States, shall be the supreme
law of the land, and the Judges in every
State shall be bound thereby, anything in
the Constitution or laws of any State to the
contrary notwithstanding"
The discrimination against Chinese and
the gross inequality of the operation upon
the Chinese of this ordinance in violation
of the constitutional treaty and cOnstitu-
tional provisions cited, is so manifest upon
its face that l am unable to comprehend
how this discrimination and inequality of
application and the consequent violation of
the express provisions of the constitutional
can fail to be borne in mind to every intel
lgent person, be he lawyer or layman.
The operation of the ordinance is not
aimed at any particular unwholesome or
immoral occupation or practice, but it de-
clares it ito be unlawful for any Chinese
TO locate, reside or carry on business within
the city and county of San Francisco, ex-
cept in that district of the State, CITY and
county hereinafter provided for their loca-
tion."
After further quoting at length the pro-
visions of the ordinance, Judge Sawyer
continued: THE obvious purpose of this
order is to forcibly drive out a whole COM
munity of twenty odd thousand people, old
and young, male and female citizens of the
United States, born in the United States,
and foreigners, moral and immoral, good,
bad and Indifferent, without respect to cir
cumstances or conditions, from whole
section of the city which they have in
habited and in which they have carried on
all kinds of business, mercantile manufact-
uring and otherwise, for more than forty
years Many of them were born therein in
their own houses, and are citizens of the
United States, entitled to ell the rights and
privileges of the United States that are en-
joyed by any other citizen of the United
States. They all, without distinction or
exception, are to leave their homes and
property occupied by them for nearly a
half century and go either out of the city
and county or to section with prescribed
limits within the city and county not
owned by them or by the city,
This, besides being discriminating
against them and unequal in its operation
upon them and all others, is simply an
arbitrary confscation of their homes and
property, and depriying them without due
process or any process OF law. and what
little there would be left after abandoning
their homes and various places of business
would again be confiscated in compul-
sorily buying lands in the various places
assigned to them, and which they do not
own upon such exorbitant terms as the
present owners, with the advantage given
them, would certainly impose. There
would be no room for freedom of action in
buying again. They would be compelled
to take any lands upon any terms arbi-
trarily proposed. or go outside the city and
county of San Francisco. That this ordi-
nance is direct violation of the Constitu-
ton of the United States, and of the ex-
press provisions of the several treaties with
China and of the statutes of the United
States, is so obvious that | shall not waste
more time or words in discussing it. To
any reasonable, intelligent and well-pal-
anced mind discussion or argument would
be wholly unnecessary and superhuous-
To those minds which are SO constituted
that the invalidity of this ordinance is not
apparent upon inspection. discussion or
argument would be useless.
"The authority upon which this order is
based is not within any legitimate police
power of the city. (See in re. Tie 10y, IL
Saw, 472; in re. All Fong. 3 Saw, IA;
Chy Lung VS.. Freeman, 90 o. s, 275; in
re. Quong GOO, 7 Saw 531)
Let the order be adiudged to be void. as
being in direct conflict with the Constitu-
ton, treaties and statutes of the United
States, and let the petitioners be dis
charged