Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/225/227/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 00:24:03+00:00

Document:
Prior decisions of this Court holding that a judgment of a competent court admitting a person to citizenship is, like every other judgment, competent evidence of its own validity, go no further than protecting the judgment from collateral attack.
Congress may authorize direct proceedings to attack certificates of citizenship on the ground of fraud and illegality, and § 15 of the Act of June 29, 1906, 34 Stat. 596, 601, c. 3592, providing for such cases, is a valid exercise of the power of Congress under Art. I, § 8 of the Constitution of the United States.
The foundation of the doctrine of res judicata or estoppel by judgment is that both parties have had their day in court, Southern Pacific R. Co. v. United States, 168 U. S. 1, 168 U. S. 48, and where a certificate of naturalization was issued without the government's appearing, there is no estoppel against it, nor is such a certificate conclusive against the public.
Certificates of naturalization, like patents for land or inventions, when issued ex parte can be annulled for fraud.
How the judicial review of a certificate of naturalization should be conducted rests in legislative discretion.
Quaere as to the conclusive effect of a certificate of naturalization issued after appearance and cross-examination by the government.
Quaere whether, in the absence of statute such as the Act of June 29, 1906, a court of equity could set aside, or restrain the use of, a certificate of naturalization.
The act of June 29, 1906, is not unconstitutional a an exercise of judicial power by the legislative branch of the government, nor is it unconstitutional because retrospective.
The ex post facto provision of the Constitution is confined to law affecting punishment for crime, and has no relation to retrospective legislation of any other description.
An alien has no legal or moral right to retain citizenship obtained solely by fraud, and an act permitting the cancellation of a certificate so obtained is not a punishment, but simply nullifies that which the party had no right to.
The facts, which involve the power of the court under the Act of June 29, 1906, c. 3592, to cancel a certificate of naturalization on the ground that it was fraudulently issued, are stated in the opinion.
This was a proceeding under § 15 of the Act of June 29, 1906, c. 3592, 34 Stat. 596, 601, instituted by the District Attorney of the United States for the Northern District of California to cancel a certificate of citizenship granted to the appellant by a state court long prior to the passage of the act referred to on the ground that it had been fraudulently and illegally procured. The case was heard upon demurrer to an amended petition, which demurrer was overruled, and thereupon, no answer being filed, the court proceeded to make a decree setting aside and cancelling the certificate. The appellant brings that decree here for review.
citizenship, and procured from that court a certificate admitting him to such citizenship. This certificate was based upon the perjured testimony of two witnesses to the effect that Johannessen had resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for five years at least, then last past. The facts were not discovered by the government until June 29, 1908, when Johannessen made a voluntary statement to the Department of Justice in the form of an affidavit, which is made a part of the amended petition, and wherein he admits that the certificate of citizenship was illegally procured in that he had not been a resident of the United States for five years at the time it was issued.
The petition contains all necessary averments to show the jurisdiction of the district court over the present action, leaving only the merits in controversy.
"SEC. 2165. An alien may be admitted to become a citizen of the United States in the following manner, and not otherwise:"
"First. He shall declare on oath, before a circuit or district court of the United States, or a district or supreme court of the territories, or a court of record of any of the states having common law jurisdiction and a seal and clerk, two years at least, prior to his admission, that it is bona fide his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, and, particularly, by name, to the prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of which the alien may be at the time a citizen or subject."
courts above specified, that he will support the Constitution of the United States, and that he absolutely and entirely renounces and abjures all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, and, particularly, by name, to the prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of which he was before a citizen or subject, which proceedings shall be recorded by the clerk of the court."
"Third. It shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the court admitting such alien that he has resided within the United States five years at least, and within the state or territory where such court is at the time held, one year at least, and that, during that time, he has behaved as a man of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same, but the oath of the applicant shall in no case be allowed to prove his residence."
"SEC. 2170. No alien shall be admitted to become a citizen who has not, for the continued term of five years next preceding his admission, resided within the United States."
citizenship alleged to have been fraudulently or illegally procured shall have sixty days' personal notice in which to make answer to the petition of the United States, and if the holder of such certificate be absent from the United States or from the district in which he last had his residence, such notice shall be given by publication in the manner provided for the service of summons by publication or upon absentees by the laws of the state or the place where such suit is brought."
"Whenever any certificate of citizenship shall be set aside or cancelled as herein provided, the court in which such judgment or decree is rendered shall make an order cancelling such certificate of citizenship, and shall send a certified copy of such order to the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, and in case such certificate was not originally issued by the court making such order, it shall direct the clerk of the court to transmit a copy of such order and judgment to the court out of which such certificate of citizenship shall have been originally issued. And it shall thereupon be the duty of the clerk of the court receiving such certified copy of the order and judgment of the court to enter the same of record, and to cancel such original and to notify the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization of such cancellation."
for fraud intrinsic the record -- that is, founded upon perjured testimony -- or any matter which was actually presented and considered in giving the judgment, and that, if the Act of June 29, 1906, authorizes the impeachment of the preexisting judgment of a coordinate court for fraud consisting of the introduction of relevant perjured testimony, it is unconstitutional as an exercise of judicial power by the legislature.
It was long ago held in this Court, in a case arising upon the early acts of Congress which submitted to courts of record the right of aliens to admission as citizens, that the judgment of such a court upon the question was, like every other judgment, complete evidence of its own validity. Spratt v. Spratt, 4 Pet. 393, 29 U. S. 408. This decision, however, goes no further than to establish the immunity of such a judgment from collateral attack. See also Campbell v. Gordon, 6 Cranch 176.
It does not follow that Congress may not authorize a direct attack upon certificates of citizenship in an independent proceeding such as is authorized by § 15 of the Act of 1906. Appellant's contention involves the notion that, because the naturalization proceedings result in a judgment, the United States is for all purposes concluded thereby, even in the case of fraud or illegality for which the applicant for naturalization is responsible. This question may be first disposed of.
for the naturalization of an alien is, in a certain sense, a judicial proceeding, being conducted in a court of record and made a matter of record therein, yet it is not in any sense an adversary proceeding. It is the alien who applies to be admitted who makes the necessary declaration and adduces the requisite proofs, and who renounces and abjures his foreign allegiance, all as conditions precedent to his admission to citizenship of the United States. He seeks political rights to which he is not entitled except on compliance with the requirements of the act. But he is not required to make the government a party nor to give any notice to its representatives.
applying at irregular times in the various courts of record of the several states and in the federal circuit and district courts throughout the Union, and bringing their applications on to summary hearing without previous notice to the government of the United States or to the public, it is, of course, impossible that the public interests should be adequately represented, and in our opinion the sections quoted from the Revised Statutes are not open to any construction that would give a conclusive effect to such an investigation when conducted at the instance of and controlled by the interested individual alone.
"That a right, question, or fact distinctly put in issue and directly determined by a court of competent jurisdiction, as a ground of recovery, cannot be disputed in a subsequent suit between the same parties or their privies."
Sound reason, as we think, constrains us to deny to a certificate of naturalization, procured ex parte in the ordinary way, any conclusive effect as against the public. Such a certificate, including the "judgment" upon which it is based, is in its essence an instrument granting political privileges, and open like other public grants to be revoked if and when it shall be found to have been unlawfully or fraudulently procured. It is in this respect closely analogous to a public grant of land (Rev.Stat. § 2289, etc.), or of the exclusive right to make, use, and vend a new and useful invention (Rev.Stat. § 4883, etc.).
Judicial review of letters patent, looking to their cancellation when issued unlawfully or through mistake, or when procured by fraud, is very ancient, possibly antedating the establishment of the court of equity in England.
"It may now be accepted as settled that the United States can properly proceed by bill in equity to have a judicial decree of nullity and an order of cancellation of a patent issued in mistake or obtained by fraud, where the government has a direct interest, or is under an obligation respecting the relief invoked."
See also Noble v. Union River Logging R. Co., 147 U. S. 165, 147 U. S. 175, and cases cited.
United States v. Throckmorton, 98 U. S. 61, is not opposed in principle, for, as pointed out in United States v. Minor, 114 U. S. 233, 114 U. S. 241, the patent was issued on the confirmation of a Mexican grant after judicial proceedings, where there were pleadings and parties, and witnesses were examined on both sides, with the right to appeal. Vance v. Burbank, 101 U. S. 514, 101 U. S. 519, was likewise a contested case in the Land Department, as the report shows.
The doctrine that a patent issued ex parte may be annulled for fraud has been repeatedly applied to patents for inventions. United States v. American Bell Telephone Co., 128 U. S. 315, 128 U. S. 361; Same v. Same, 167 U. S. 224, 167 U. S. 238.
notice to the party holding the certificate of citizenship that is under attack. No criticism is made of this mode of procedure.
The views above expressed render it unnecessary for us to go into the question whether, on general principles, and without express legislative authority, a court of equity at the instance of the government, might set aside a certificate of citizenship or restrain its use, for fraud or the like. In United States v. Norsch, 42 F. 417, it was declared that the government could sue in a federal court for the cancellation of a certificate that had been procured by fraud in a state court, but it was held that the facts set forth in the bill did not make out a sufficient case of fraud. In United States v. Gleason, 78 F. 396, the contrary conclusion was reached upon the main question. These two cases arose prior to the Act of 1906.
he takes nothing by his paper grant. Fraud cannot be substituted for facts."
"That the government, especially when thereunto authorized by Congress, has the right to recall whatever of property has been taken from it by fraud, is, in my judgment, well settled, and if that be true of property, then by analogy and with greater reason it would seem to be true where it has conferred a privilege in answer to the prayer of an ex parte petitioner."
The contention that the Act of June 29, 1906, in authorizing the impeachment of certificates of naturalization theretofore issued for fraud consisting of the introduction of perjured testimony, is unconstitutional as an exercise of judicial power by the legislative department is in effect disposed of by what has been said. The act does not purport to deprive a litigant of the fruits of a successful controversy in the courts, for, as already shown, the proceedings for naturalization are not in any proper sense adversary proceedings, but are ex parte and conducted by the applicant for his own benefit. The act in effect provides for a new form of judicial review of a question that is in form, but not in substance, concluded by the previous record, and under conditions affording to the party whose rights are brought into question full opportunity to be heard. Retrospective acts of this character have often been held not to be an assumption by the legislative department of judicial powers. Sampeyreac v. United States, 7 Pet. 222, 32 U. S. 239; Freeborn v. Smith, 2 Wall. 160, 69 U. S. 175; Garrison v. New York, 21 Wall. 196, 88 U. S. 202; Freeland v. Williams, 131 U. S. 405, 131 U. S. 413; Stephens v. Cherokee Nation, 174 U. S. 445, 174 U. S. 478.
Chief Justice Parker in Foster v. Essex Bank, 16 Mass. 273, "there is no such thing as a vested right to do wrong."
his. Such a statute is not to be deemed an ex post facto law.

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