Court Opinion

ID: 9482875
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:03:32.046949+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:15.805129
License: Public Domain

NOONAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
The Immigration Service propounds a question to persons seeking naturalization that would be intolerable if asked by a government agency of an American citizen. It is an intimidating question. It chills the right of free association guaranteed by the First Amendment.
The Immigration Service’s answer is that aliens are different. They are second class people. No doubt for some purposes this characterization is the harsh truth. Since the abolition of slavery aliens are the only adults subject to treatment as second class people in the United States.
The Supreme Court has taken some steps to remedy the aliens’ plight when their ill treatment comes from the states. Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U.S. 67, 96 S.Ct. 1883, 48 L.Ed.2d 478 (1976); Talley v. California, 362 U.S. 60, 80 S.Ct. 536, 4 L.Ed.2d 559 (1960). However, the Supreme Court has used language giving great deference to Congress over the admission of aliens. Fiallo v. Bell, 430 U.S. 787, 792, 97 S.Ct. 1473, 1477, 52 L.Ed.2d 50 (1977). This deference is defensible when the alien is outside the United States and seeking to enter this country. Kleindienst v. Mandel, 408 U.S. 753, 92 S.Ct. 2576, 33 L.Ed.2d 683 (1972). It is also appropriate to give deference to Congress and the Executive Branch in matters which “may implicate our relations with foreign powers.” Fiallo, 430 U.S. at 796, 97 S.Ct. at 1480 (quoting Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U.S. at 81-82, 96 S.Ct. at 1892).
The case, however, is substantially different when the alien is a resident and a resident of long standing — in the present case 30 years. Realistically such a person has been conducting himself like an American for a very long time. His reactions to an intolerable inquiry are similar to those of a citizen. Rightly so. He has imbibed the air of freedom which permeates our culture. He insists upon a right not to be treated as a second class person where freedom of association is concerned.
The Supreme Court has drawn a firm line between resident and nonresident aliens. In this case the court relies principally on Kleindienst v. Mandel, supra. But Mandel was a revolutionary Marxist from Belgium seeking to enter this country. All precedent was against the judiciary ordering his admission. As Justice Murphy had put it, “The Bill of Rights is a futile authority for the alien seeking admission for the first time to these shores.” Bridges v. Wixon, 326 U.S. 135, 161, 65 S.Ct. 1443, 1455, 89 L.Ed. 2103 (1945). Justice Murphy had, however, continued: “Once an alien lawfully enters and resides in this country he becomes invested with the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all people within our borders.” Justice Murphy’s views, expressed as a concurrence, were adopted by a unanimous court in Kwong Hai Chew v. Colding, 344 U.S. 590, 596 n. 5, 73 S.Ct. 472, 477 n. 5, 97 L.Ed. 576 (1953). They have recently been quoted and endorsed by Chief Justice Rehnquist writing for the Court in United States v. Verdugo-Urquidez, 494 U.S. 259, 271, 110 S.Ct. 1056, 1064, 108 L.Ed.2d 222 (1990). Indeed, Chief Justice Rehnquist italicized the words “once an alien lawfully enters and resides in this country.” Price lawfully entered the country and resides here. He is “invested with the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all people within our borders.”
The power of Congress to set standards for naturalization is very large, but like every other power of government it is circumscribed; it is not absolute. In Girouard v. United States, 328 U.S. 61, 66 S.Ct. 826, 90 L.Ed. 1084 (1946), the Court refused to construe as mandatory a requirement made by Congress that a petitioner for naturalization swear to support the Constitution by taking up arms in defense of this country. The Court did so because otherwise the statute would have been held as unconstitutional. Girouard, 328 U.S. at 65, 66 S.Ct. at 827.
In the present case the Immigration Service and this court have construed the stat*845ute in such a way that it is unconstitutional. As construed, the statute permits the Immigration Service to undertake an inquiry far broader than any governmental necessity warrants. The Immigration Service draws to our attention Executive Order 11785 (June 4, 1974) forbidding it to maintain a list of subversive organizations. The Immigration Service may not maintain such a list but under its interpretation of its authority it may snoop into any and all organizations a resident alien has joined.
A narrowly tailored question could be asked of any petitioner without infringing on First Amendment rights. A petitioner could be asked if he had belonged to any organizations dedicated to the overthrow of the government or advocating or using terrorism or if he belonged to any foreign military, paramilitary or intelligence organization. Such a question would have an obvious relevance to the government’s legitimate concerns. A question without bounds as to association has no relation to governmental concerns.
The Immigration Service says that the government is concerned with the petitioner’s “character.” Beyond excluding persons committed to subversion or terror or under the orders of a foreign government, there is no conceivable way that the government can measure a person’s character. Persons of all kinds of character make up the United States. The Immigration Service cannot design some fine test by which only persons of outstanding character will be admitted as citizens. In reality we must take our applicants for citizens, as we take our citizens themselves, as a mix of people. That is the way immigrants have come to the United States and peopled it and that is the way it will always be.
The statute is without rational purpose and, infringing severely on the right of free association, it is unconstitutional. I respectfully dissent.