United States v. Church of the Holy Trinity

Citation36 F. 303
PartiesUNITED STATES v. RECTOR, ETC., OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY.
Decision Date21 May 1888
CourtUnited States District Courts. 2nd Circuit. United States District Courts. 2nd Circuit. Southern District of New York

Seaman Miller, for the demurrer.

Stephen A. Walker, U.S. Atty., contra.

WALLACE J.

This suit is brought to recover a penalty of $1,000 imposed by the act of congress of February 26, 1885, (23 St.at Large, 332,) upon every person or corporation offending against its provisions by knowingly encouraging the migration of any alien into the United States 'to perform labor or service of any kind under contract or agreement, express or implied,' previously made with such alien. The defendant a religious corporation, engaged one Warren, an alien residing in England, to come here and take charge of its church as a pastor. The act makes it the duty of the United States district attorney to bring suit to enforce the penalty prescribed. The demurrer interposed to the complaint raises the single question whether such a contract as was made in this case is within the terms of the act. In other words, the question is whether congress intended to prohibit the migration here of an alien who comes pursuant to a contract with a religious society to perform the functions of a minister of the gospel, and to subject to the penalty the religious society making the contract and encouraging the migration of the alien minister. The act is entitled 'An act to prohibit the importation and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor in the United States. ' It was, no doubt, primarily the object of the act to prohibit the introduction of assisted immigrants, brought here under contracts previously made by corporations and capitalists to prepay their passage and obtain their services at low wages for limited periods of time. It was a measure introduced and advocated by the trades union and labor associations, designed to shield the interests represented by such organizations from the effects of the competition in the labor market of foreigners brought here under contracts having a tendency to stimulate immigration and reduce the rates of wages. Except from the language of the statute there is no reason to suppose a contract like the present to be within the evils which the law was designed to suppress; and, indeed, it would not be indulging a violent supposition to assume that no legislative body in this country would have advisedly enacted a law framed so as to cover a case like the present. Nevertheless where the terms of a statute are plain, unambiguous, and explicit, the courts are not at liberty to go outside of the language to search for a meaning which it does not reasonably bear in the effort to ascertain and give effect to what may be imagined to have been or not to have been the intention of congress. Whenever the will of congress is declared in ample and unequivocal language, that will must be absolutely followed, and it is not admissible to resort to speculations of policy, nor even to the views of members of congress in debate, to find reasons to control or modify the statute. U.S. v. Railroad Co., 91 U.S. 72. If it were...

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5 cases
  • Camunas v. New York & P.R.S.S. Co.
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit
    • June 3, 1919
    ...was whether the contract labor law applied to the employment of a foreign rector by Trinity Church. The Circuit Court held that it did. 36 F. 303. That act ' * * * That it shall be unlawful for any * * * corporation, in any manner whatsoever, to prepay the transportation, or in any way assi......
  • Tsoi Sim v. United States
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit
    • May 5, 1902
    ... ... 580; Lau Ow Bew v. U.S., 144 ... U.S. 47, 59, 12 Sup.Ct. 517, 36 L.Ed. 340; Holy Trinity ... Church v. U.S., 143 U.S. 457, 12 Sup.Ct. 511, 36 L.Ed ... 226; Lee Kan.v. U.S., 10 ... ...
  • United States v. Commissioner of Immigration of Port of New York, 72.
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit
    • November 17, 1922
    ...New York and enter into its service as rector. It was claimed that this came within the terms of the statute and the court below so held. 36 F. 303. The Supreme Court, reversed the judgment below. It held that, although the case came within the letter of the statute, it was not within the i......
  • United States v. Union Bank of Canada
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit
    • December 10, 1919
    ...York as its pastor. The government brought suit against the church for the penalty and the defendant demurred. We overruled the demurrer-- 36 F. 303-- in view of the language of act--section 3, 'labor or service of any kind,' and of the specific exceptions; section 5, which did not include ......
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2 books & journal articles
  • Justice David Josiah Brewer and the "Christian nation" maxim.
    • United States
    • Albany Law Review Vol. 63 No. 2, December 1999
    • December 22, 1999
    ...States to recover the penalty proscribed by statute). (124) See id. at 457-58. (125) See United States v. Church of the Holy Trinity, 36 F. 303, 303-04 (C.C.S.D.N.Y. (126) See id. at 304-05 (holding that a pastor was not excluded from the mandates of the Contract Labor Act of 1885). (127) S......
  • Revisiting a Classic Problem in Statutory Interpretation: Is a Minister a Laborer?
    • United States
    • Georgia State University College of Law Georgia State Law Reviews No. 36-5, July 2020
    • Invalid date
    ...5, 23 Stat. at 333.12. See Immigration Act of 1891, ch. 551, § 5, 26 Stat. 1084, 1085.13. See United States v. Church of the Holy Trinity, 36 F. 303, 303-04 (S.D.N.Y. 1888), rev'd, 143 U.S. 457 (1892).14. Id. There is contemporaneous evidence supporting a claim that the church brought the c......

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