United States ex rel. Ivanow v. Greenawalt

• Decision Date: 19 May 1914
• Docket Number: 62.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• Parties: UNITED STATES ex rel. IVANOW et al. v. GREENAWALT, U.S. Immigration Com'r, et al.

213 F. 901

UNITED STATES ex rel. IVANOW et al. v. GREENAWALT, U.S. Immigration Com'r, et al.

No. 62.

United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania.

May 19, 1914

Monaghan & Phillips, of Philadelphia, Pa., for petitioners.

Robert J. Sterrett, Asst. U.S. Atty., and Francis Fisher Kane, U.S Atty., both of Philadelphia, Pa., contra.

DICKINSON District Judge.

This is an appeal from the helpless. So far as the questions which arise are judicial questions, they are questions of liberty-- human liberty. The history of the writ of habeas corpus and every Bill of Rights which has been incorporated into our Constitutions, federal and state, as well as the legislation which has sought to preserve and make practically effective the benefits of the writ, all alike show the emphasis which the people have ever placed upon the right of every one to enjoy personal liberty. No court in the United States would ever refuse a prompt and full response to the plea that this right be upheld. The more friendless and helpless the relator, the quicker should be the response. This right to liberty, however, is to a liberty under the law. Let us see how this case stands. The main principle involved is a political, not a judicial, one. The right and power of the people of the United States through the action of Congress to define and regulate the privilege of admission to our shores must be unquestioned. Outside the act of Congress, admission is a privilege, not a legal right. It must also go without question that Congress may prescribe the conditions upon which this high privilege may be enjoyed, and may commit to any official, department, or tribunal, executive or judicial the determination of any questions of fact or otherwise upon which the exercise of this privilege may depend. Congress may also prescribe within what time, in what manner, and by whom any decisions made may be reviewed. When Congress has in its wisdom committed the determination of any such question to one official, department, or tribunal, it must be that no other official, department, or tribunal, unauthorized by Congress, executive or judicial, can control or interfere with the determination thus reached. Over all, of course, are the mandates of the Constitution and the rights to which it is a shield. The one with which we are concerned is the right to liberty to which any real man would with Patrick Henry give the preference over the mere right to live. The principle by which this cause must be determined is to the American mind the greatest of all principles, but like all really great principles, it is clear and may be simply stated. The general question involved is this: Are these relators, by the restraint from which they ask to be relieved, being deprived of any legal right? What is the right of the denial of which they complain? It is not the natural right of liberty but the privilege of admission to the United States. The particular question, therefore, is Have they been denied admission in accordance with the declared will of Congress or merely by the arbitrary act of the defendant? Congress by numerous acts has declared who shall not be admitted into the United States. It has defined the grounds upon which such exclusion is based. It has committed the execution of these laws to designated officials whose duty it is made to determine the questions of whether particular alien applicants for admission are within or without the excluded classes. It has provided a complete system for the effective enforcement of its will. It has guarded with sedulous care against the danger of possible abuse of the power conferred upon the immigration officials by according the privilege of an appeal which may reach in due course the Secretary of Labor, and the order of exclusion does not become operative until the whole proceeding has his sanction and the order his approval. A search into the provisions of the immigration laws for any power or authority granted to the courts to interfere with this well-ordered system would be fruitless. No duty has been imposed upon them and no power conferred. The reasons for this are many and obvious. The judges of the courts have at least one reason to be grateful to Congress that it has so decreed. As therefore no express power has been conferred and no duty has been...