Wan Shing v. United States

• Decision Date: 11 May 1891
• Citation: 11 S.Ct. 729,35 L.Ed. 503,140 U.S. 424
• Parties: WAN SHING v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

140 U.S. 424

11 S.Ct. 729

35 L.Ed. 503

WAN SHING v. UNITED STATES.

May 11, 1891.

J. J. Scrivner, for appellant.

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

Mr. Justice FIELD, after stating the facts as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

The refusal of the officers of the customs at the port of San Francisco to allow the petitioner to land, and his consequent detention by the master of the steam-ship in which he was brought to this country, were not founded upon the act of May 6, 1882, and the act amendatory thereof, as erroneously alleged in his petition. They were based upon the provisions of the act of October 1, 1888, which declared that from and after its passage it should be unlawful for any Chinese laborer, who at any time before had been, or was then, or might thereafter be, a resident within the United States, and who had departed or might depart therefrom, and should not have returned before its passage, to return to or remain in the United States; and it further declared that no certificates of identity, uner which by the act of May 6, 1882, Chinese laborers departing from the country were allowed to return, should thereafter be issued, and it annulled every certificate of the kind which had been previously issued, and provided that no Chinese laborer should be permitted to enter the United States by virtue thereof. The petitioner, if a laborer, could not, therefore, have been permitted to land, except in violation of this statute, without reference to the question whether or not he was in the country on November 17, 1880, and had departed therefrom before the passage of the act of May 6, 1882. His right to land, therefore, rested upon his establishing the fact that he was not a laborer, within the provisions of the act of October 1, 1888, and that could only have been shown by a certificate of identity issued under the authority of the Chinese gver nment. The sixth section of the act of May 6, 1882, (22 St. 58, c. 126,) provides that, for the faithful execution of the treaty of November 17, 1880, every Chinese person, other than a laborer, who may be entitled by it and by that act to come within the United States, and who is about to come, 'shall be identified as so entitled by the Chinese government in each case, such identity to be evidenced by a certificate issued under the authority of said government, which certificate shall be in the English language, or, (if not in the English language,) accompanied by a translation...