Truax v. Raich

Citations

• 239 U.S. 33
• 36 S. Ct. 7
• 60 L. Ed. 131
• 1915 U.S. LEXIS 1521

Syllabus

<p>A suit against officers of. the State who are about to proceed wrongfully to complainant’s injury in enforcing an unconstitutional statute is not a suit against the State within the meaning of the Eleventh Amendment.</p> <p>While, generally speaking, a court of equity has no jurisdiction over prosecution, punishment or pardon .of crimes or misdemeanors, equity may, when such action is essential to the safeguarding of property rights, restrain criminal prosecutions under unconstitutional statutes.</p> <p>The right to earn a livelihood and to continue employment unmolested by efforts to enforce void enactments is entitled to protection in equity in the absence of an adequate remedy at law.</p> <p>The fact that an employment is at the will of the employer and employé does not make it one at the will of others, and unjustified interference of third parties is actionable although the employment may be at will.</p> <p>Although a statute may only render an employer liable to prosecution, if it operates directly upon the employment of -the employé and its enforcement would compel the discharge of an employé, the latter is affected directly, has no adequate remedy at law, and if the statute is unconstitutional, is entitled to equitable relief.</p> <p>An alien admitted to the United States under the Federal law has not only the privilege of entering and abiding in- the United States but also of entering and abiding in any State, and being an inhabitant of any State entitles him, under the Fourteenth Amendment, to the equal protection of its laws.</p> <p>The description in the Fourteenth Amendment of any person within the jurisdiction of the United States includes aliens. Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U. S. 356.</p> <p>The right to work for a living in the common occupations of the community is of the essence of that personal freedom and opportunity which it was the purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment to secure. The power to control immigration — to admit or exclude aliens — is v