Lees v. United States

• Decision Date: 04 December 1893
• Docket Number: No. 98,98
• Citation: 14 S.Ct. 163,37 L.Ed. 1150,150 U.S. 476
• Parties: LEES et al. v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

150 U.S. 476

14 S.Ct. 163

37 L.Ed. 1150

LEES et al.

v UNITED STATES.

No. 98.

December 4, 1893.

Hector T. Fenton, for plaintiffs in error.

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

Mr. Justice BREWER delivered the opinion of the court.

On August 22, 1888, the United States commenced this action in the district court of the United States for the eastern district of Pennsylvania to recover of Joseph Lees and John S. Lees, the present plaintiffs in error, the sum of $1,000 as a forfeit and penalty for a violation by them of the act of congress of February 26, 1885, entitled 'An act to prohibit the importation and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor in the United States, its territories, and the District of Columbia.' 23 Stat. 332. Proceedings were thereafter had in that suit which resulted in a judgment on February 23, 1889, in favor of the United States, for the sum of $1,000. This judgment was affirmed by the circuit court of that district, and has since, by writ of error, been brought to this court for review.

The first alleged error is that the district court had no jurisdiction over the action. The third section of the act provides that for every violation, the offender 'shall forfeit and pay for every such offense the sum of $1,000, which may be sued for and recovered by the United States, or by any person who shall first bring his action therefor, including any such alien or foreigner, who may be a party to any such contract or agreement, as debts of like amount are now recovered in the circuit courts of the United States.' It is insisted that the last clause of this sentence vests the sole jurisdiction over such actions in the circuit court. But for those words, there would be no question of the jurisdiction of the district court.

From the earliest history of the government, the jurisdiction over actions to recover penalties and forfeitures has been placed in the district court. The ninth section of the judiciary act of September 24, 1789, (1 Stat. 76,) provides as follows: 'The district court shall have exclusive original cognizance * * * of all suits for penalties and forfeitures incurred under the laws of the United States.' While in the Revised Statutes the word 'exclusive' was omitted, the language was not otherwise substantially changed. It is true that in some cases jurisdiction over matters of penalty and forfeiture has been committed to the circuit court, but this was always done by special act, and does not otherwise affect the proposition that the general jurisdiction over actions for penalties and forfeitures has been and is vested in the district court. Hence, when, as here, a statute imposes a penalty and forfeiture, jurisdiction of an action therefor would vest in the district court, unless it is in express terms placed exclusively elsewhere. If the words, 'as debts of like amount are now recovered,' were omitted from this last clause, the construction claimed by counsel might be sustained. Jurisdiction would then be given to the circuit courts. So, if those words were in parenthesis, or even separated from the last part of the clause by a comma, or any similar punctuation, there would be plausibility in the contention. But, taking the clause as a whole, giving force to all its words, it would seem to refer to the form of the action, rather than to the forum. When it is remembered that a penalty may be recovered by indictment or information in a criminal action, or by a civil action in the form of an action of debt, and also that the circuit courts of the United States are, as contradistinguished from the district courts the federal courts of original civil jurisdiction, the significance of this clause is clear. It in effect provides that, although the recovery of a penalty is a proceeding criminal in its nature, yet in this class of cases it may be enforced in a civil action, and in the same manner that debts are recovered in the ordinary civil courts. Repeals by implication are not favored, and the general grant of jurisdiction to the district courts of suits to recover penalties and forfeitures should not in any case be transferred exclusively to the circuit courts by words of doubtful import. In U. S. v. Mooney, 116 U. S. 104, 6 Sup. Ct. 304, a somewhat similar effort was made to construe certain provisions of a statute as divesting the district courts of their general jurisdiction over suits to recover penalties and forfeitures; but, in the face of language more significant of a change than that here presented, this court sustained such jurisdiction.

A second alleged error is that the act, so far as it imposes this penalty, is unconstitutional. This question was elaborately considered by Mr. Justice Brown, then a judge of the district court, in U. S. v. Craig, 28 Fed. 795, and the conclusion reached that there was nothing in the act conflicting with the constitution. In Church of Holy Trinity v U. S., 143 U. S. 457, 12 Sup. Ct. 511, its constitutionality was assumed; and since The Chinese Exclusion Case, 130 U. S. 581, 9 Sup. Ct. 623, and the case of Fong Yue Ting v. U. S., 149 U. S. 698, 13 Sup. Ct. 1016, affirming fully the power of congress over the exclusion of aliens, there can be little doubt in the matter. Given in congress the absolute power to exclude aliens, it may exclude some and admit others, and the reasons for its discrimination are not open to challenge in the courts. Given the power to exclude, it has a right to make that exclusion effective by punishing those who assist in introducing, or attempting to introduce, aliens in violation of its prohibition. The importation of alien laborers, who are under previous contract to perform labor in the United States, is the act denounced, and the penalty is visited, not upon the alien laborer,—although, by the amendment of February 23, 1887, (24 Stat. 414,) he is to be returned to the country from which he came,—but upon the party assisting in the importation. If congress has power to exclude such laborers, as, by the cases cited, it unquestionably has, it has the power to punish any who assist in their introduction.

A third...