Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/291/82/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 11:57:48+00:00

Document:
1. The Alien Land Law of California forbids that an alien who is neither a citizen nor eligible for naturalization shall occupy land for agricultural purposes unless permitted by treaty, makes conspiracy of two or more persons to violate the prohibition a crime, and further provides that, where the state proves occupation or use of such land by any defendant, and the indictment alleges his alienage and ineligibility, the onus of proving his citizenship or eligibility shall devolve upon the defense.
(a) In the case of the lessor, the statutory presumption of the lessee's disqualification and of the lessor's knowledge of it, based only on the lease and possession, is purely arbitrary. Pp. 291 U. S. 90-92.
(b) In the case of the lessee, the shifting of the burden of proof is likewise unjustifiable, first because a lease of agricultural land conveys no hint of criminality, and secondly because there is in general no practical necessity for relieving the prosecution of the necessity of proving Japanese race -- the appearance of the defendant and expert testimony will suffice, and because, in the exceptional case, where the appearance of Japanese blood is obscured by admixtures of white or African blood, the promotion of convenience from the point of view of the prosecution will be outweighed by the probability of injustice to the accused: one whose racial origins are so blended as not to be discoverable at sight will often be unaware of them. Pp. 291 U. S. 93-96.
of proving citizenship by birth lay upon the alien after the state had proved him to be of a race ineligible for naturalization. P. 291 U. S. 87.
2. The burden of proof may be shifted in criminal cases where the state has proved enough to make it just for the defendant to be required to repel what has been proved with excuse or explanation, or where, upon a balancing of convenience or of the opportunities for knowledge, the shifting of the burden will be found to be an aid to the accuser without subjecting the accused to hardship or oppression. P. 291 U. S. 88.
3. Where a charge of conspiracy is limited to two persons, the guilty knowledge must have been shared by both to warrant conviction of either. P. 291 U. S. 93.
218 Cal. 287, 22 P. 2d 718, reversed.
Appeal from a judgment sustaining a conviction of conspiracy. The case went to the court below from the California District Court of Appeal. 13 P. 2d 803.
The indictment charges that the two appellants, Morrison and Doi, feloniously conspired to place Doi in the possession and enjoyment of agricultural land within the state; that possession was obtained, and the land used and cultivated, in execution of the conspiracy, and that Doi was an alien Japanese, ineligible to citizenship, and not protected in his possession by any treaty between the government of the United States and the government of Japan. These acts, if committed with guilty knowledge of each defendant, make out a criminal conspiracy under the statutes of the state.
"in any action or proceeding, civil or criminal, by the State of California, or the people thereof, under any of the provisions of this act, when the proof introduced by the state, or the people thereof, establishes the acquisition, possession, enjoyment, use, cultivation, occupation, or transferring of real property or any interest therein, or the having in whole or in part the beneficial use thereof by any defendant, or any of such fact(s), and the complaint, indictment or information alleges the alienage and ineligibility to United States citizenship of such defendant, the burden of proving citizenship or eligibility to citizenship shall thereupon devolve upon such defendant."
of law under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. 13 P.2d 803. The cause was then transferred to the Supreme Court of California. There defendants' contention under the Fourteenth Amendment was again overruled, and the conviction was affirmed, three judges dissenting. 22 P.2d 718. An appeal to this Court followed.
"If two or more persons conspire to violate any of the provisions of this act, they are punishable by imprisonment in the county jail or state penitentiary not exceeding two years or by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or both."
This is the section under which the defendants have been convicted. There is nothing in the statute whereby unlawful occupation of land by an alien ineligible for citizenship is declared to be a crime unless the occupation has been acquired by force of a conspiracy.
the burden of proving citizenship as a defense. [Footnote 3] We sustained that enactment when challenged as invalid under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution. The state had given evidence with reference to the defendant, the occupant of the land, that, by reason of his race, he was ineligible to be made a citizen. With this evidence present, we held that the burden was his to show that, by reason of his birth, he was a citizen already, and thus to bring himself within a rule which has the effect of an exception. In the vast majority of cases, he could do this without trouble if his claim of citizenship was honest. The people, on the other hand, if forced to disprove his claim, would be relatively helpless. In all likelihood, his life history would be known only to himself and at times to relatives or intimates unwilling to speak against him.
has been proved with excuse or explanation, or at least that, upon a balancing of convenience or of the opportunities for knowledge, the shifting of the burden will be found to be an aid to the accuser without subjecting the accused to hardship or oppression. Cf. Wigmore, Evidence, vol. 5, §§ 2486, 2512, and cases cited. Special reasons are at hand to make the change permissible when citizenship vel non is the issue to be determined. Citizenship is a privilege not due of common right. One who lays claim to it as his, and does this in justification or excuse of an act otherwise illegal, may fairly be called upon to prove his title good. In accord with that view are decisions of this Court in proceedings under the acts of Congress for the deportation of aliens. A Chinaman by race resisted deportation on the ground that, though a Chinaman, he had been born in the United States. The ruling was that, as to the place of birth, the burden was upon the alien, and not upon the government. The ruling also was that the imposition of that burden did not deprive the alien of his constitutional immunities. Chin Bak Kan v. United States, 186 U. S. 193, 186 U. S. 200.
"The inestimable heritage of citizenship is not to be conceded to those who seek to avail themselves of it under pressure of a particular exigency, without being able to show that it was ever possessed."
the crime was conspiracy, and that one of the defendants belonged to the white race. The case was submitted as if both were Japanese.
The question is now as to § 9a. Obviously there is a wide difference between the scope of the two sections. Possession of agricultural land by one not shown to be ineligible for citizenship is an act that carries with it not even a hint of criminality. To prove such possession without more is to take hardly a step forward in support of an indictment. No such probability of wrongdoing grows out of the naked fact of use or occupation as to awaken a belief that the user or occupier is guilty if he fails to come forward with excuse or explanation. Yee Hem v. United States, 268 U. S. 178, 268 U. S. 183-184; Luria v. United States, 231 U. S. 9, 231 U. S. 25; Casey v. United States, 276 U. S. 413, 276 U. S. 418; Mobile, J.K. & C. R. Co. v. Turnipseed, 219 U. S. 35, 219 U. S. 42-43; Bailey v. Alabama, 219 U. S. 219, 219 U. S. 233, 219 U. S. 238; Manley v. Georgia, 279 U. S. 1; People v. Cannon, 139 N.Y. 32. "The legislature may go a good way in raising [a presumption] or in changing the burden of proof, but there are limits." McFarland v. American Sugar Co., 241 U. S. 79, 241 U. S. 86. What is proved must be so related to what is inferred in the case of a true presumption as to be at least a warning signal according to the teachings of experience. "It is not within the province of a legislature to declare an individual guilty or presumptively guilty of a crime." McFarland v. American Sugar Co., supra; Bailey v. Alabama, supra; Manley v. Georgia, supra. There are, indeed, "presumptions that are not evidence in a proper sense, but simply regulations of the burden of proof." Casey v. United States, supra. Even so, the occasions that justify regulations of the one order have a kinship, if nothing more, to those that justify the others. For a transfer of the burden, experience must teach that the evidence held to be inculpatory has at least a sinister significance (Yee Hem v. United States, supra; Casey v.
United States, supra), or, if this at times be lacking, there must be, in any event, a manifest disparity in convenience of proof and opportunity for knowledge -- as, for instance, where a general prohibition is applicable to everyone who is unable to bring himself within the range of an exception. Greenleaf, Evidence, Vol. 1, § 79. [Footnote 4] The list is not exhaustive. Other instances may have arisen or may develop in the future where the balance of convenience can be redressed without oppression to the defendant through the same procedural expedient. The decisive considerations are too variable, too much distinctions of degree, too dependent in last analysis upon a common sense estimate of fairness or of facilities of proof, to be crowded into a formula. One can do no more than adumbrate them; sharper definition must await the specific case as it arises.
proof of race, occupation of the land is not even a suspicious circumstance. The inquiry must therefore be whether occupants so situated may be charged with the burden of proving themselves eligible, and thus establishing their innocence.
First. The indictment is for conspiracy, and, indeed, the Alien Land Law creates no other crime. In re Akado, 188 Cal. 739, 742, 207 P. 245; Mott v. Cline, 200 Cal. 434, 448, 253 P. 718; California Delta Farms v. Chinese American Farms, 207 Cal. 298, 308, 278 P. 227. Morrison and Doi are charged to have conspired, but Doi alone is charged to be ineligible for citizenship. One might suppose from a reading of the statute that the burden of proof, even if shifted as to him, would be unaffected as to Morrison. The California courts, however, have cast the same burden upon both, and both have been convicted. Nonetheless, in applying the presumption, we must keep before us steadily the quality of their crime. It is impossible in the nature of things for a man to conspire with himself. Turinetti v. United States, 2 F.2d 15, 17. In California, as elsewhere, conspiracy imports a corrupt agreement between not less than two with guilty knowledge on the part of each. People v. Richards, 67 Cal. 412, 7 P. 828; People v. Kizer, 22 Cal.App. 10, 14, 133 P. 516, 521; People v. Entriken, 106 Cal.App. 29, 32, 288 P. 788; Sands v. Commonwealth, 21 Grat. 871, 899; Pettibone v. United States, 148 U. S. 197, 148 U. S. 203-205.
to anyone looking at him. Moreover, if his race was apparent, he may still have been a citizen, for anything that was known to Morrison or others. The statute does not make it a crime to put a lessee into possession without knowledge or inquiry as to race and place of birth. The statute makes it a crime to put an ineligible lessee into possession as the result of a willful conspiracy to violate the law. Nothing in the People's evidence gives support to the inference that Morrison had knowledge of the disqualifications of his tenant or could testify about them. What was known to him, so far as the evidence discloses, was known also to the People, and provable with equal case. Only an arbitrary mandate could charge him with guilty knowledge as an inference of law if it were proved that Doi was not a citizen or eligible to become one. Still less can he be charged with such knowledge when Doi's disqualification is itself a mere presumption. In such circumstances, the conviction of Morrison because he failed to assume the burden of disproving a conspiracy was a denial of due process that vitiates the judgment as to him. Nor is that the only consequence. Doi was not a conspirator, however guilty his own state of mind, unless Morrison had shared in the guilty knowledge and design. Pettibone v. United States, supra; Gebardi v. United States, 287 U. S. 112, 287 U. S. 123. The joinder was something to be proved, for it was of the essence of the crime. Without it, there was a civil wrong, but not a criminal conspiracy, the only crime denounced. In re Akado, supra. The conviction, failing as to the one defendant, must fail as to the other. Turinetti v. United States, supra; Williams v. United States, 282 F. 481, 484; Gebardi v. United States, supra.
innocent as to the landlord who believes that all is lawful.
We have pointed out before that a lease of agricultural land, unaccompanied by evidence of the race of the lessee, conveys no hint of criminality. For the moment, we assume, without intending to decide, that strong considerations of convenience, if they existed, might cast upon the tenant the burden of proving his qualifications and thus disproving guilt. The question will then be whether the normal burden of proof will so thwart or hamper justice as to create a practical necessity, without preponderating hardship to the defendant, for a departure from the usual rule.
In the vast majority of cases, the race of a Japanese or a Chinaman will be known to anyone who looks at him. There is no practical necessity in such circumstances for shifting the burden to the defendant. Not only is there no necessity; there is only a faint promotion of procedural convenience. The triers of the facts will look upon the defendant sitting in the courtroom, and will draw their own conclusions. If more than this is necessary, the people may call witnesses familiar with the characteristics of the race, who will state his racial origin. The only situation in which the shifting of the burden can be of any substantial profit to the state is where the defendant is of mixed blood, the white or the African so preponderating that there will be no external evidence of another. But, in such circumstances, the promotion of convenience from the point of view of the prosecution will be outweighed by the probability of injustice to the accused. One whose racial origins are so blended as to be not discoverable at sight will often be unaware of them. If he can state nothing but his ignorance, he has not sustained the burden of proving eligibility, and must stand condemned of crime.
The probability is thus apparent that the transfer of the burden may result in grave injustice in the only class of cases in which it will be of any practical importance. The statute does not say that the defendant shall be acquitted if he does not know his racial origin and is unable to make proof of it. What the effect of such a law would be we are not required to consider. To the contrary, the statute says, in substance, that, unless he can and does prove it, he will have failed to discharge his burden, and will therefore be found guilty. Moreover, if he were to profess ignorance, and ignorance were an excuse, the trier of the facts might refuse to credit him. Holmes, J., in Ah How v. United States, supra, p. 193 U. S. 76. There can be no escape from hardship and injustice, outweighing many times any procedural convenience, unless the burden of persuasion in respect of racial origin is cast upon the people.
What has been written applies only to those provisions of the statute that prescribe the rule for criminal causes.
Other considerations may or may not apply where the controversy is civil. We leave that question open.
"Sec. 9b. In any action or proceeding, civil or criminal, by the State pf California or the people thereof, under any of the provisions of this act, when the complaint, indictment, or information alleges the alienage and ineligibility to United States citizenship of any defendant, proof by the state, or the people thereof, of the acquisition, possession, enjoyment, use, cultivation, occupation, or transferring of real property or any interest therein, or the having in whole or in part of the beneficial use thereof by such defendant, or of any such facts, and in addition proof that such defendant is a member of a race ineligible to citizenship under the naturalization laws of the United States, shall create a prima facie presumption of the ineligibility to citizenship of such defendant, and the burden of proving citizenship or eligibility to citizenship as a defense to any such action or proceeding shall thereupon devolve upon such defendant."
Cal.Stats.1927, c. 528, p. 881.
Instances of the application of this principle can be cited in profusion. The cases that follow are typical examples: King v. Turner, 5 Maule & Sel. 206, where a defendant, having game in his possession in violation of a statute whereby possession was generally a crime, was held to have the burden of proving his special qualifications (cf. Yee Hem v. United States, supra; also Spieres v. Parker, 1 T.R. 144, per Lord Mansfield); Fleming v. People, 27 N.Y. 329, a prosecution for bigamy, where, on proof that the defendant had contracted a second marriage during the lifetime of his first wife, the burden was laid upon him to prove exceptional circumstances that would have made the marriage lawful, and, finally, such cases as Potter v. Deyo, 19 Wend. 361, 363, and United States v. Turner, 266 F. 248 (typical of a host of others), where a defendant has been subjected to the burden of producing a license or a permit for a business or profession that would otherwise be illegal. Cf. United States v. Hayward, 26 Fed.Cas. 240; Board Comm'rs v. Merchant, 103 N.Y. 143, 8 N.E. 484.
Indians not born in the United States and not entitled to the special privileges growing out of service in the war (8 U.S.C. § 3) are ineligible for citizenship.
The subject was considered in Matter of Rodriguez, 81 F. 337, but not all that was there said is consistent with later decisions of this Court. Ozawa v. United States, and United States v. Thind, supra. Cf. In re Camille, supra.
Mexicans have migrated into California in increasingly large numbers (T. F. Woofter, Jr., Status of Racial and Ethnic Groups in "Recent Social Trends," Vol. 1, pp. 553, 562, 572, 573), and there have developed racial problems which have been considered by official bodies. California Departments of Industrial Relations, Agriculture, and Social Welfare, "Mexicans in California," Report by Governor C.C. Young's Mexican Fact Finding Committee, San Francisco, Cal., 1930, pp. 41, et seq.
The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation of 1831 between the United States and Mexico gives to the nationals of either country the privilege of owning personal estate in the other (Art. XIII), but contains no provision in respect of the ownership of land. This treaty was revived after the Mexican War by Article XVII of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848). It was terminated by Mexico in November, 1881. See Malloy, Treaties, Vol. 1, p. 1085.
As to the appearance of children of marriages between Japanese and the white races, see S.C. Gulick, The American Japanese Problem, p. 153; Iyenaga and Sato, Japan and the California Problem, p. 157.

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