Lin Sing v. Washburn

Citations

• 20 Cal. 534
• 1862 Cal. LEXIS 76

Syllabus

<p>The Act of April 26th, 1862, entitled “An Act to Protect Free White Labor against Competition with Chinese Coolie Labor, and Discourage the Immigration of the Chinese into the State of California,” is in violation of the provision of the Constitution of the United States which gives Congress the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations.</p> <p>Per Cope, J.—The Federal Constitution has vested in the General Government the power to regulate commerce in all its branches; and this power extends to every species of commercial intercourse, and may be exercised upon persons as well as.property.</p> <p>Commerce cannot be carried on without the agency of persons; and a tax, the effect of which is to diminish personal intercourse, is a tax on commerce. If the power to impose such tax is acknowledged—it being a sovereign power— no limitation can be affixed to its exercise, and it may be so used as not only to diminish but to destroy commerce.</p> <p>Immigration, either temporary or permanent, is an ingredient of intercourse and traffic; and the power to regulate commerce implies the power to regulate both as to persons and as to goods.</p> <p>That branch of this power which relates to persons having been exercised by Congress in.the passage of the various acts designed for the encouragement of immigration, without regard to.nationality, is exclusively a prerogative of the Federal Governmant, and no State can exercise any part of it, except, perhaps, as the Government may assent to its exercise in particular cases.</p> <p>The power asserted in the passage of the act in question is the right of the State to prescribe the terms upon which the Chinese shall be permitted to reside in it; and this right, if carried to the extent to which it may be carried, if the power exists, may be so used as to cut off all intercourse between them and the people of the State, and defeat the commercial policy of the nation.</p> <p>The act cannot be maintained as a police regulation. This