Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-07-06
T H E G E A RY ACT
Justice Gray's Opinion on the Oonstruo-
tion Of the Law Filed
The Power Of . Sovereign Nation to Ex-
ciuds Foreigners Right
70 Enact Such . Law.

When, on the 10th of May last. Mr.. Justice
Gray Of the United States Supreme Court
briefly announced the decision Of the court in
the construction Of the Geary Chinese exclu-
sion act, he explained that . more extended
opinion would be filed by him later. That de-
cision has now been filed with the clerk of the
court.
At the outset it il held that the general prin-
ton of these cases are clearly established by
previous judgments Of the court and by the
authorities therein referred to.
THE POWER INHERENT IN SOVEREIGNTY.
The recent case Of Mishimura Ekiu agt the
United States is referred to, wherein the court,
in sustaining the action OF the executive de-
partment putting in force an act Of Congress
for the exclusion Of aliens, said: 1T IL an &C.
cepted maxim of international law that every
sovereign nation has the power, @ inherent in
sovereignty, and essential to self-preservation,
to forbid the entrance Of foreigners within its
dominions, or to admit them only In such cases
and upon such conditions a. 1t may see fit to
prescribe. In the United States this power il
the Constitution has committed the entire con-
troll Of international relations, in peace
a. well as IN war. 1t belongs to the
political department. Of the government,
and may be exercised either through
treaties made by the President and Senate or
through statutes enacted by Congress-" The
same views. says Mr.. Justice Gray, were more
fully expounded in the earlier case Of Chae
Chan Ping agt. the United States, in which the
validity OF the former act Of Congress exclud-
ing Chinese laborers from the United States
under the circumstances therein stated was
affirmed The right Of q nation to expel or de-
port foreigners who have not been naturalized
or taken any steps toward becoming citizens Of
the country rests upon the same grounds and 10
as absolute and unqualified as the right to pro-
hibit and prevent their entrance into the coun-
try.
THE AUTHORITY OF CONGRESS-.
Referring to the authority Of Congress in the
matter the opinion holds that Congress, having
the right. as 1t may see fit, to expel aliens Of q
particular class or to permit them to remain,
has undoubtedly the right'to provide system
OF registration and Identification of the men,
bers OF that class within the country, and to
take all proper means to carry out the system
which II provides. It Is no new thing for the
law-msking power, acting either through
treaties made by the President and Senate or
by the moro common method of acts of Con-
gress, to submit the decision Of questions not
necessarily OF judicial cognizauce, either to the
final determination of executive officers or to
the decision of such officers in the first in
stance. with such opportunity for judicial re-
view Of their action as Congress may see fit to
authorize or permit.
Instances Of the exercise of this power are
glven and then Justice Gray reviews the stat
utes, treaties and decisions previous to the act
Of 1892, from which he deduced the propo-
slflons that in our Jurisprudence it 10 well
settled that the provisions of an act Of Congress
passed in the exercise Of its constitutional au-
thority, on this, as on any other subject, if
clear and explicit, must be upheld by the courts,
even in contravention Of express stipulations in
an earlier treaty. and that sit appears to be
impossible to hold that q Chinese laborer &C
quired, under any Of the treaties or acts of
Congress- any right, as q denlzen or otherwise,
to be and remain in this country. except by the
license, permission and sufferance Of Congress,
to be withdrawn whenever, in its opinion, the
public welfare might require it"
PROVISIONS OF THE aEARY ACT.
The provisions of the Geary act are discussed
at some length, and the provision which puts
the burden Of proof Of rebutting the presump-
ton arising from his having no certificate as
well as the requirement Of proof, ''by at least
one creditab.e white witness, that he was a
resident Of the United States at the time of the
passage of this act" is held to be within the
acknowledged power Of every legislature to
prescribe the evidence which shall be received
and the effect Of that evidence in the courts Of
its own government.
The proceeding before United States Judge
is decided to be in no proper sense a trial and
sentence FOR q crime or ofense, it being simply
the ascertainment, by appropriate and lawful
means, of the fact whether the conditions exist
upon which Congress has enacted that an alien
Of this class may remain within the country The
order OF deportation is not punishment for
crime. 1t Is not a banisl m mt in the sense in
which that word is often .ppIied to the expul-
sion Of a citizen from his country by way of
punishment 1t is but a method Of enforcing