Lem Moon Sing v. United States

Decision Date27 May 1895
Docket NumberNo. 946,946
PartiesLEM MOON SING v. UNITED STATES et al
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

Maxwell Evarts, for appellant.

Asst. Atty. Gen. Dickinson, for the United States.

Mr. Justice HARLAN delivered the opinion of the court.

Lim Lung, on behalf of the appellant, Lem Moon Sing, presented to the district court of the United States for the Northern district of California an application in writing for a writ of habeas corpus, directed to one D. D. Stubbs, and to the collector of the port of San Francisco, requiring them to produce the body of the appellant, and abide by such order as the court might make in the premises.

The grounds set forth in the application for the writ were substantially as follows:

The appellant was a person of the Chinese race, born in China, and never naturalized in the United States.

At and before the passage of the general appropriation act of congress, approved August 18, 1894, he was a Chinese merchant, having a permanent domicile in the United States at San Francisco, and lawfully engaged in that city in mercantile pursuits, and not otherwise. That domicile had never been surrendered or renounced by him.

On the 30th day of January, 1894, while conducting his business as a merchant at San Francisco, being a member of the firm of Kee Sang Tong & Co., wholesale and retail druggists in that city, he went on a temporary visit to his native land, with the intention of returning and of continuing his residence in the United States, in the prosecution of that business. He was so engaged for more than two years before his departure for China, and during that time performed no manual labor except as was necessary in the conduct of his business as a druggist.

Dui ng his temporary absence in China the appropriation act of August 18, 1894, was passed. That act contained these provisions:

'Enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Act: To prevent unlawful entry of Chinese into the United States, by the appointment of suitable officers to enforce the laws in relation thereto, and for expenses of returning to China all Chinese persons found to be unlawfully in the United States, including the cost of imprisonment and actual expense of conveyance of Chinese persons to the frontier or seaboard for deportation, and for enforcing the provisions of the act approved May fifth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, entitled 'An act to prohibit the coming of Chinese persons into the United States,' fifty thousand dollars.

'In every case where an alien is excluded from admission into the United States under any law or treaty now existing or hereafter made, the decision of the appropriate immigration or custom officers, if adverse to the admission of such alien, shall be final, unless reversed on appeal to the secretary of the treasury.'

28 Stat. 1893-94, p. 390, c. 301.

The appellant returned to the United States, November 3, 1894, on the steamer Belgic, belonging to the Occidental & Oriental Steamship Company, of which D. D. Stubbs was secretary and manager. Upon his arrival here, he applied to John H. Wise, collector of customs at San Francisco, to be permitted to land and enter the United States on the ground that he was formerly engaged in this country as a merchant. He submitted to the collector the testimony of two credible witnesses other than Chinese, showing that he conducted business as a merchant here for one year previous to his departure, as above stated, from the United States, and that during that period he was not engaged in the performance of any manual labor except such as was necessary in conducting his business as a merchant. His application to enter the United States was denied, and consequently he was detained, confined, and restrained of his liberty by Stubbs, as secretary and manager of the steamship company.

In addition to the above facts, the application for the writ of habeas corpus alleged that Lem Moon Sing had not been apprehended and was not detained by virtue of the judgment, order, decree, or other judicial process of any court, or under any writ or warrant, but under the authority alleged to have been given to the collector of the port of San Francisco by the above act of August 18, 1894; that Lem Moon Sing was not at the date of the passage of that act, nor for more than one year prior to the date of his departure for China for temporary purposes, and is not now, an alien excluded from admission into the United States under any law or treaty now existing; and that said D. D. Stubbs, and said John H. Wise, collector of the port, are without jurisdiction to restrain the said Lem Moon Sing of his liberty.

The petitioner also alleged that if Lem Moon Sing should not be allowed to enter the United States and to resume his residence and mercantile business therein, and be sent back to China, he would sustain great and irreparable loss, and his business be wholly destroyed, whereby he would be denied 'that equal right granted to him by the constitution and the laws of the United States, and by the treaties made and existing between the United States and the Chinese empire, of which he is a subject.'

It was further alleged that the detention and restraint of the liberty of Lem Moon Sing were without jurisdiction, void, and unconstitutional, and 'without due process of law, and against his rights under the constitution and the laws of the United States and the treaties made between the United States of America and the Chinese empire, and wrongfully and unlawfully under and by color of the authority of the United States asserted and exercised by the said John H. Wise, collector of the port of San Francisco.'

The writ of habeas corpus was denied by the court below, because, in its judgment, the application o its face showed that Lem Moon Sing was detained and restrained of his liberty by the collector of the port of San Francisco under the act of congress approved August 18, 1894, and consequently that jurisdiction over the petitioner was with the collector of the port of San Francisco. From this judgment an appeal has been prosecuted to this court.

The present case is, in principle, covered by the former adjudications of this court.

In the Chinese Exclusion Case, 130 U. S. 581, 603, 9 Sup. Ct. 623, this court said: 'That the government of the United States, through the action of the legislative department, can exclude aliens from its territory, is a proposition which we do not think open to controversy. Jurisdiction over its own territory to that extent is an incident of every independent nation. It is a part of its independence. If it could not exclude aliens, it would be to that extent subject to the control of another power.' That case involved the validity of the act of congress of October 1, 1888, making it unlawful, from or after that date, for any Chinese laborer who had theretofore been or was then or might become a resident within the United States, and had departed or should depart from this country before the passage of that act, 'to return to, or remain in, the United States.' The same act annulled all certificates of identity issued under the previous act of May 6, 1882 (25 Stat. 504, c. 1064).

The case of Nishimura Ekiu v. U. S., 142 U. S. 651, 653, 659, 12 Sup. Ct. 336, arose under the act of March 3, 1891, excluding from admission into the United States, in accordance with acts then in force regulating immigration (other than those concerning Chinese laborers), all idiots, insane persons, paupers, or persons likely to become a public charge, persons suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease, persons who had been convicted of a felony or other infamous crime or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude, etc. That act made provision for the appointment by the president, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, of a superintendent of immigration, who should be an officer of the treasury, and to whom was committed, under the control and supervision of the secretary of the treasury, the execution of the act. It was further declared by that act that 'all decisions made by the inspection officers or their assistants touching the right of any alien to land, when adverse to such right, shall be final, unless appeal be taken to the superintendent of immigration, whose action shall be subject to review by the secretary of the treasury.' 26 Stat. 1084, c. 551.

Nishimura Ekiu, a female subject of the emperor of Japan, was denied the right to land in the United States, and was held in custody to be sent back to her country, as the statute required in such cases. She sued out a writ of habeas corpus. The circuit court of the United States confirmed the action of the inspection officer, and remanded the petitioner to his custody.

This court, observing that, according to the accepted maxims of international law, every soverign nation has the power, inherent in sovereignty and essential to self preservation, to forbid the entrance of foreigners within its dominions, or to admit them only in such cases and upon such conditions as it may see fit to prescribe, said: 'In the United States this power is vested in the national government, to which the constitution has committed the entire control of international relations, in peace as well as in war. It belongs to the political department of the government, and may be exercised either through treaties made by the president and senate, or through statutes enacted by congress, upon whom the constitution has conferred power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, including the entrance of ships, the importation of goods, and the bringing of persons into the ports of the United States, to establish a uniform rule of naturalization, to declare war, and to provide and maintan armies and navies, and to make all laws which may be necessary and proper for carrying into effect these powers and all other powers vested by the constitution in the government of the United States or in any...

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