Gee Fook Sing v. United States

• Citation: 49 F. 146
• Parties: GEE FOOK SING v. UNITED STATES.
• Decision Date: 25 January 1892
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

49 F. 146

GEE FOOK SING v. UNITED STATES.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

January 25, 1892

H. B M. Miller, for appellant.

W. G Witter, Asst. U.S. Atty.

Before DEADY, HANFORD, and HAWLEY, District Judges.

HANFORD District Judge.

From the record it appears that on October 16, 1890, one Gee Joong Ding filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of the appellant in the district court for the northern district of California, alleging, in substance, that the appellant was then illegally restrained of his liberty and imprisoned on board the steam-ship Belgic, at the port of San Francisco, by the master of said vessel; that the cause of said restraint and imprisonment was that said master claimed that the appellant was a passenger on said vessel, and a Chinese person, of the class prohibited by law from landing in the United States; that the appellant had applied to the collector of customs for the port of San Francisco to be permitted to land from said vessel, and his application had been denied by the collector; and that the appellant was not a person prohibited from entering or remaining in the United States, he having been born in the city of San Francisco, in the United States, and being a citizen thereof. Upon said petition a writ was issued, and about a year afterwards the evidence in the case was taken before a commissioner, to whom the case was referred to take proofs and report findings according to the established practice of the district court in such cases. In his report the commissioner negatives the allegations of the petitioner in the important matter as to the citizenship of the appellant by findings that he is a subject of the emperor of China, and that he has not by sufficient evidence established his right to enter or remain in the United States. The case was heard by the district court upon the evidence so taken, and the report ofthe commissioner, with the result that the findings of the commissioner were affirmed, and a judgment given remanding the appellant.

The case has been submitted in this court upon the record without argument. We have considered all the questions of law and fact which we find involved, and our conclusions are that inasmuch as the fourteenth article of the amendments to the constitution of the United States declares that all persons born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United...