Morrison v. People of State of California

Decision Date08 January 1934
Docket NumberNo. 487,487
PartiesMORRISON et al. v. PEOPLE OF STATE OF CALIFORNIA
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

Appeal from the Supreme Court of the State of California.

Mr. J. Marion Wright, of Los Angeles, Cal., for appellants.

Mr. James S. Howie, of Los Angeles, Cal., for the People of State of California.

Mr. Justice CARDOZO delivered the opinion of the Court.

The appellants have been convicted of a conspiracy to violate the Alien Land Law of the state of California.

The indictment charges that the two appellants, Morrison and Doi, feloniously conspired to place Doi in the possession and enjoyment of agricultural land within the state; that possession was obtained, and the land used and cultivated, in execution of the conspiracy; and that Doi was an alien Japanese, ineligible to citizenship, and not protected in his possession by any treaty between the government of the United States and the government of Japan. These acts, if committed with guilty knowledge of each defendant, make out a criminal conspiracy under the statutes of the state.

On the trial the state proved that Dio had gone upon the land and used it under an agreement with Morrison, but did not attempt to prove that he was not a citizen of the United States or that he was ineligible for citizenship. The statutes of California provide that as to these elements of the crime the burden of disproving guilt shall rest on a defendant. By section 9a of the Alien Land Law, as amended in 1927 (California Statutes, 1927, pp. 880, 881, c. 528, § 1), it is enacted that, 'in any action or proceeding, civil or criminal, by the State of California, or the people thereof, under any of the provisions of this act, when the proof introduced by the state, or the people thereof, establishes the acquisition, possession, enjoyment, use, cultivation, occupation, or transferring of real property or any interest therein, or the having in whole or in part the beneficial use thereof by any defendant, or any of such fact(s), and the complaint, indictment or information alleges the alienage and ineligibility to United States citizenship of such defendant, the burden of proving citizenship or eligibility to citizenship shall thereupon devolve upon such defendant.' At the same session of the Legislature, the Code of Civil Procedure of the state was amended by the addition of a new section (1983) which in substance and effect restates the same rule. California Statutes, 1927, p. 434, c. 244. Applying these statutes to this case, the trial judge held (a jury having been waived) that both the defendants, Morrison as well as Doi, were guilty of conspiracy. They were sentenced to be imprisoned for two years, but the sentences were suspended, and the defendants placed upon probation. There was an appeal to the District Court of Appeal for the Fourth District, where the judgment was affirmed. The court overruled the defendants' contention that, by the application of section 9a of the Alien Land Law and section 1983 of the Code of Civil Procedure, there had been a denial of due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. 13 P.(2d) 803. The cause was then transferred to the Supreme Court of California. There defendants' contention under the Fourteenth Amendment was again overruled, and the conviction was affirmed, three judges dissenting. 22 P.(2d) 718. An appeal to this court followed.

A person of the Japanese race is a citizen of the United States if he was born within the United States. United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649, 18 S.Ct. 456, 42 L.Ed. 890. He is a citizen, even though born abroad, if his father was a citizen, provided, however, that this privilege shall not exist unless the father was at some time a resident of the United States as well as a citizen, and provided also that such a child, who continues to reside abroad, shall, in order to receive the protection of this government, be required upon reaching the age of eighteen years to record at an American consulate his intention to become a resident and remain a citizen of the United States, and shall be further required to take the oath of allegiance to the United States upon attaining his majority. R.S. § 1993; 8 U.S.C. § 6 (8 USCA § 6); Weedin v. Chin Bow, 274 U.S. 657, 47 S.Ct. 772, 71 L.Ed. 1284; see also R.S. § 2172; 8 U.S.C. § 7 (8 USCA § 7). But a person of the Japanese race, if not born a citizen, is ineligible to become a citizen, i.e., to be naturalized. The privilege of naturalization is confined to aliens who are 'free white persons, and to aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent.' R.S. § 2169; 8 U.S.C. § 359 (8 USCA § 359). 'White persons,' within the meaning of the statute, are members of the Causcasian race, as Caucasian is defined in the understanding of the mass of men. Ozawa v. United States, 260 U.S. 178, 43 S.Ct. 65, 67 L.Ed. 199; Yamashita v. Hinkle, 260 U.S. 199, 43 S.Ct. 69, 67 L.Ed. 209; United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, 261 U.S. 204, 214, 43 S.Ct. 338, 67 L.Ed. 616; Terrace v. Thompson, 263 U.S. 197, 44 S.Ct. 15, 68 L.Ed. 255; Porterfield v. Webb, 263 U.S. 225, 44 S.Ct. 21, 68 L.Ed. 278; Webb v. O'Brien, 263 U.S. 313, 44 S.Ct. 112, 68 L.Ed. 318; Cockrill v. California, 268 U.S. 258, 45 S.Ct. 490, 69 L.Ed. 944. The term excludes the Chinese (United States v. Wong Kim Ark, supra; 8 U.S.C. § 363 (8 USCA § 363)), the Japanese (cases supra), the Hindus (United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, supra), the American Indians (Ozawa v. United States, supra), and the Filipinos (Toyota v. United States, 268 U.S. 402, 45 S.Ct. 563, 69 L.Ed. 1016), though Indians and Filipinos who have done military or naval service may be entitled to special privileges (8 U.S.C. §§ 3, 388 (8 USCA §§ 3, 388)). Nor is the range of the exclusion limited to persons of the full blood. The privilege of naturalization is denied to all who are not white (unless the applicants are of African nativity or African descent); and men are not white if the strain of colored blood in them is a half or a quarter, or, not improbably, even less, the governing test always (United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, supra) being that of common understanding. Dean v. Com., 4 Grat. (45 Va.) 541; Gentry v. McMinnis, 3 Dana (Ky.) 382; In re Camille (C.C.) 6 F. 256; In re Young (D.C.) 198 F. 715, 717; In re Lampitoe (D.C.) 232 F. 382; In re Alverto (D.C.) 198 F. 688; In re Knight (D.C.) 171 F. 299; 2 Kent Comm. (12th Ed.) 73, note. Cf. the decisions in the days of slavery. Gentry v. McMinnis, 3 Dana (Ky.) 382; Morrison v. White, 16 La.Ann. 100, 102; see Scott v. Raub, 88 Va. 721, 727-729, 14 S.E. 178.1

The California Alien Land Law must be read in the light of these rulings as to the effect of birth and race. Section 1 of the act (Cal. Stat. 1923, p. 1020, § 1, amending Cal. Stat. 1921, p. lxxxiii) provides that all aliens eligible for citizenship may acquire and occupy real property to the same extent as citizens. Section 2 (as amended by section 2 of act of 1923) provides that aliens not eligible for citizenship may use and occupy real property to the extent prescribed by any treaty between the Government of the United States and the nation or country of which such alien is a citizen or subject, 'and not otherwise.' There is a Treaty between the United States and Japan (Feb. 21, 1911, 37 Stat. 1504) by which the Japanese may own or lease houses, manufactories, warehouses, and shops, and may lease land for residential and commercial purposes. The treaty does not confer a privilege to own or use land for the purposes of agriculture. Webb v. O'Brien, supra, 263 U.S. 323, 44 S.Ct. 112, 68 L.Ed. 318; Frick v. Webb, 263 U.S. 326, 44 S.Ct. 115, 68 L.Ed. 323. Section 3 of the act (as amended by section 3 of the act of 1923) prescribes the rule applicable to the acquisition of shares in corporations organized by aliens for the occupation or use of land; sections 4 and 5 (as amended by sections 4, 5 of the act of 1923) prescribe the rule for alien trustees and guardians; sections 7, 8, and 9 (as amended by sections 6-8 of the act of 1923) provide for the escheat to the state of any interest in real property unlawfully acquired. Section 10 (as amended by section 9 of the act of 1923) provides that: 'If two or more persons conspire to violate any of the provisions of this act they are punishable by imprisonment in the county jail or state penitentiary not exceeding two years or by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or both.' This is the section under which the defendants have been convicted. There is nothing in the statute whereby unlawful occupation of land by an alien ineligible for citizenship is declared to be a crime unless the occupation has been acquired by force of a conspiracy.

This court in Morrison v. California, 288 U.S. 591, 53 S.Ct. 401, 77 L.Ed. 970,2 passed upon a controversy as to the validity of section 9b of the California Alien Land Law, which, though akin to section 9a, has important elements of difference. This section (9b) provides in substance that, when it has been proved that the defendant has been in the use or occupation of real property, and when it has also been proved that he is a member of a race ineligible for citizenship under the naturalization laws of the United States, the defendant shall have the burden of proving citizenship as a defense.3 We sustained that enactment when challenged as invalid under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution. The state had given evidence with reference to the defendant, the occupant of the land, that by reason of his race he was ineligible to be made a citizen. With this evidence present, we held that the burden was his to show that by reason of his birth he was a citizen already, and thus to bring himself within a rule which has the effect of an exception. In the vast majority of cases, he could do this without trouble if his claim of citizenship was...

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