Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/291/82
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 10:43:18+00:00

Document:
Argued: Dec. 12, 13, 1933.
This court in Morrison v. California, 288 U.S. 591, 53 S.Ct. 401, 77 L.Ed. 970, 2 passed upon a controversy as to the validity of section 9b of the California Alien Land Law, which, though akin to section 9a, has important elements of difference. This section (9b) provides in substance that, when it has been proved that the defendant has been in the use or occupation of real property, and when it has also been proved that he is a member of a race ineligible for citizenship under the naturalization laws of the United States, the defendant shall have the burden of proving citizenship as a defense. 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.
The question is now as to section 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, 183, 184, 45 S.Ct. 470, 69 L.Ed. 904; Luria v. United States, 231 U.S. 9, 25, 34 S.Ct. 10, 58 L.Ed. 101; Casey v. United States, 276 U.S. 413, 418, 48 S.Ct. 373, 374, 72 L.Ed. 632; Mobile, etc., R. Co. v. Turnipseed, 219 U.S. 35, 42, 43, 31 S.Ct. 136, 55 L.Ed. 78, 32 L.R.A.(N.S.) 226, Ann.Cas. 1912A, 463; Bailey v. Alabama, 219 U.S. 219, 233, 238, 31 S.Ct. 145, 55 L.Ed. 191; Manley v. Georgia, 279 U.S. 1, 49 S.Ct. 215, 73 L.Ed. 575; People v. Cannon, 139 N.Y. 32, 34 S.Ct. 759, 36 Am.St.Rep. 668. '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, 86, 36 S.Ct. 498, 501, 60 L.Ed. 899. 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 requlations 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 every one who is unable to bring himself within the range of an exception. Greenleaf, Evidence, vol. 1, § 79. 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.
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, 8 USCA § 3) are ineligible for citizenship.
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 (article 13), but contains no provision in respect of the ownership of land. This treaty was revived after the Mexican War by article 17 of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848). It was terminated by Mexico in November, 1881. See Malloy, Treaties, vol. 1, p. 1085 ( 8 Stat. 414; 9 Stat. 935).
SKINNER v. STATE OF OKLAHOMA ex rel. WILLIAMSON, Atty. Gen. of Oklahoma.
TOT v. UNITED STATES. UNITED STATES v. DELIA.
WEBRE STEIB CO., Limited, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE.
Robert E. IANNELLI et al., Petitioners, v. UNITED STATES.

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