Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States
Citations
- 143 U.S. 457
- 12 S. Ct. 511
- 36 L. Ed. 226
- 1892 U.S. LEXIS 2036
Syllabus
<p>The act of February 26, 1885, “ to prohibit the importation and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract .or agreement to perform labor in the United States, its Territories, and the District of Columbia,” 23 Stat. 332, c. 164, does not apply to a contract between an alien, residing out of the United States, and a religious society incorporated under the laws of a State,' whereby he engages to remove to the United States and ' to enter into the service of the society as its rector or minister.</p>
How courts have described this case
Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.
- using legislative history,, among other factors, to determine that statutory term “labor or service of any kind” did not include clergymen
- declining to apply to a church’s contract with a British pastor a prohibition on contracting to import an alien to perform labor of any kind
- remarking that Holy Trinity Church’s approach has “long been disfavored”
- applying the absurdity doctrine which permits courts to avoid an absurd application of an otherwise clear statute
- a decision, by the way, that foreshadows the sort of \judicial activism\ for which many 20th Century judges have been criticized in some quarters
- “If a literal construction of the words of a statute be absurd, the act must be so construed as to avoid the absurdity.”
Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).
Judges: Brewer
Read full opinion on CourtListenerSourced from CourtListener / Free Law Project (CC0).
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