St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-05-16
Every Nation Has the In
herent Right to Keep
a. Aliens Out.
Three of the Justices Dissent
From the Opinion Of the
5f Majority.
Counsel for the Plaintiffs
Move for a Rehearing Of
~ the Case.


nese exclusion and registration act.
| The opinion was announced by Justice
Gray, Justice Brewer dissenting. The
announcement that decision in the
case was expected attracted large at
tendance of spectators, and the fact
that it was the last day of the term &C
counted for the presence of an unusu-
ally large array of attorneys within the
bar, including Attorney General Olney.
Solicitor General Aldrich, Senators
Hugh. Dolph and Cockrell, eXJustice
Strong and several members of the dip
lomatic corps were interested spec
tators.
Justice Gray, in announcing the Judg-
ment of the court. said that the QueS-
ton presented was the constitutionality
and effect of the sixth section of the act
entitled San act to prohibit the coming
of Chinese persons into the United
States" the justice sketched the pro-
visions of the law rapidly and then
proceeded to say that it was perfectly
we'll settled; it was one Of the funda
mental principles of
The Law of Nations
that every independent nation had the
inherent right to keep aliens out of its
territory, and to order them to get out
of its territory. That power public well
fare demanded. That power exists in
time of war, and equally so in time of
peace, and has always been recognized
as belonging to independent nations.
The United States and all of the great
powers, has the power to make war; to
make peace; to pass acts of naturaliza-
ton; to pass all necessary and proper
laws to carry out the powers reposed IN
congress. On the political department
OF the government devolved the care of
international relations. 1t had been set
tied in two cases that the power OF ex-
clusion may be vested in executive
officers, and the aid of the judiciary
might be invoked. 1t was no new thing
in public law for matters to be executive
and political in the first instance. and
then take judicial force, as the political
department might direct. The courts
have no authority to revise the decisions
or the action and effect in these cases.
except so far as provision has been
made by law.
The Treaties With China
provided originally for very free inter
couESe-that was in 1869. Then it was
found that it was necessary to have
more power for the convenient regua-
ton of this matter and the subsequent
treaties more distinctly recognized, as
contemplated by the contracting parties,
the power to regulate the entrance Of
Chinese into this country. If congress
makes law inconsistent with treaty
1t may give foreign nation the right
to complain and to take such action as
1t may deem best for its own interest,
but the duty of the courts OF the United
States is clear and they Must recognize
its force.
Justice Gray here dwelt at length
upon the objection that had been made
to the arbitrary power conferred upon
the executive officers in making depor-
tations. He said that, so far as an in
vestlgation is made, it will be judicial
investigation. The law provided that
the Chinaman shall be deported unless
he shall clearly establish certain facts
to the satisfaction of the judge. The
what evidence shall be demanded before
the judicial tribunals. 1t was within
Its Power to Provide
that those aliens who have been year
within the United States without get
ting out certificate should be deported.
1t had the right to define what witnesses
should be heard; right to protect the
courts against testimony from persons
who had no regard for the sanctity of
an oath. He would not touch upon the
wisdom. the policy. even the justice of
the act. Those questions were for
the political, the legislative and
the executive departments of
the government, if the act were within
their constitutional powers, and 1t would
be out of place for the court to inter-
fere. What congress had done had not
been to provide for any definition of
crime in the act, nor to provide any
punishment 1t provided that the per-
sons in question should be sent out of
the country to the place from whence
they came; it provided, not for the ad-
Indication of crime, but simply for the
removal of persons whose presence con-
gress considers inconsistent with the
public welfare. 1t must be remembered
that Chinese cannot De naturalZed.
Doubtless they are entitled to the Sc
curity and safeguard guaranteed by the
constitution and laws in such measure
as they provide. out there was nothing
in the constitution or laws which i'm
pugned the power OF congress to compel
them to leave the country.
Three Dissent.
At the conclusion of Justice Gray's
opinion, Justice Brewer announced that
he felt compelled to dissent from the
view of the majority of The court. He
read his views at some length, declaring
in substance that the act of 1892 was un-
and that if it were up |
held there was no guarantee that sim |
liar treatment might not be accorded to
other classes of our population.
Justice Field, who delivered the opin- |
ion of the supreme court of the United |
States in the first case under the ex-
clusion act, also read dissenting opin-
ion. He held that there was a wide
difference between exclusion of i'm
migrants and the deportation of
alien residents, and he charac-
teriZed the act in the strongest
language as inhuman and brutal; and
as vi0latlye of the constitution in every
section. He regretted to say that the
decision of the court was to his mind
fraught with the gravest danger to the
priceless constitutio nal liberties of the
people.
Chief Justice Fuller also dissented
FROM the opinion of the court.
In his dissenting opinion the chief
Justice denied the soundness of the
that the cases before the
court were such as the political depart
nent of the government alone coul deal
With. 1t was, in his view. a judicial
question, and however reluctant courts
my be to pass upon the constitution
slity of
Legislative Acts,
t was the very essence of judicial duty
o do so when the discharge OF that duty
vas properly imposed upon it. He en-
ertained do doubt that the provisions
# the fifth and fourteenth amendments
we're universal in their application, and
hat while the general government was
so far as foreign countries
we're concerned, with all the powers
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