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January 7
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1892
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January 7
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1892
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February 29
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1892
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Church of the Holy Trinity v United States
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143
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457
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12 S Ct 511 36 L Ed 226 1892 US LEXIS 2036
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Error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York
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The circuit court did err when it held that the contract hiring an English rector was within the prohibition of the statute which disallowed a "person, company, partnership, or corporation, in any manner whatsoever to prepay the transportation, or in any way assist or encourage the importation or migration, of any alien or aliens, any foreigner or foreigners, into the United States under contract or agreement to perform labor or service of any kind in the United States"
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1891-1892
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Brewer
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''unanimous''
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US chap 164, 23 St p 332
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'',
143 U.S. 457 (
1892 ), was a decision of the
Supreme Court Of The United States regarding an employment contract between
The Church Of The Holy Trinity, New York and an
English preacher.
Contracts to import labor were forbidden by the
U.S. Code , and specifically by "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." The court held that a minister was not a foreign laborer under the statute even though he was a foreigner.
The court used the
Soft Plain Meaning Rule to interpret the statute in this case. Justice Brewer made a principle of statutory construction that "It is a familiar rule that a thing may be within the letter of the statute and yet not within the statute, because not within its spirit nor within the intention of its makers." Its decision stated that "the circuit court did err when it held that the contract hiring an English rector was within the prohibition of the statute which disallowed a "...person, company, partnership, or corporation, in any manner whatsoever to prepay the transportation, or in any way assist or encourage the importation or migration, of any alien or aliens, any foreigner or foreigners, into the United States ... under contract or agreement ... to perform labor or service of any kind in the United States..."
This case is cited most often for its determination of how legislative intent can be determined. The case is famous for being misinterpreted as a religion case, from a line in ''
Obiter Dicta '' in which Justice Brewer claimed that the United States is a "Christian nation." Many people have cited that as the case's holding, though that is incorrect.
