|
| |
January 11
|
| |
12
|
| |
1923
|
| |
February 19
|
| |
1923
|
| |
United States v Bhagat Singh Thind
|
| |
261
|
| |
204
|
| |
43 S Ct 338 67 L Ed 616 1923 US LEXIS 2544
|
| |
Certificate from the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
|
| |
1923
|
| |
Sutherland
|
| |
''unanimous''
|
'',
261 U.S. 204 (
1923 ), was a case in which the
United States Supreme Court decided that
Bhagat Singh Thind , who was a
High Caste Punjabi Aryan , settled in
Oregon , could not be a
Naturalized Citizen of the
United States , despite the fact that some
Anthropologists had defined Aryans as part of the
Caucasian Race . The ruling followed a decision in ''
Takao Ozawa V. United States '', where the same court had ruled that a light-skinned native of
Japan could not be counted as "white", because "white" meant "Caucasian". In ''Bhagat Singh Thind'', the court seemed to contradict itself, ruling that Thind was not a "white person" as used in "common speech, to be interpreted in accordance with the understanding of the common man." Using the "understanding of the common man" argument, it was therefore decided that Congress never intended for Indians to be able to naturalize.
Associate Justice
George Sutherland found that, while he was were indeed anthropologically Caucasian, the framers of the Constitution could never have intended to let Bhagat Singh Thind be naturalized. Sutherland wrote "the average man knows perfectly well that there are unmistakable and profound differences", leveraging the common man's understanding of "Caucasian" to not include him, and hence Thind could not be eligible for citizenship, because his looks differed distinctly from those in this common-man notion. Rather than create a new classification, Sutherland found Indians to be Asian, subjecting them to preexisting anti-Asian laws passed nationally and in California under the heavy lobbying of the
Asiatic Exclusion League .
Not only were Indians denied the ability to naturalize: their new classification as Asian, rather than white, allowed the retroactive stripping of previously naturalized Indians of their American citizenship, because zealous prosecutors argued that Indian Americans had gained citizenship illegally, a claim often upheld. Moreover, without citizenship, Indian land owners fell under the net of the
California Alien Land Law and other racist laws spearheaded by growing hatred against Asian immigrants. Specifically, Attorney General
Ulysses S. Webb was very active in revoking Indian land purchases; in a bid to strengthen the AEL, he promised to prevent Indians from buying or leasing land. Under intense pressure, and with
The Barred Zone Act Of 1917 preventing fresh immigration to strengthen the fledgling Indian-American community, most Indians left the United States, leaving only half their population, 2,405, by 1940.
Suggestive of the poor coordination within the legal system of the early 20th century is the fact that Thind applied for and received U.S. citizenship through the state of New York a few years after his original U.S. citizenship was revoked by the U.S. Supreme Court. Numerous other instances exist of naïve clerks, or clerks acting in protest, who granted citizenship in defiance of the Supreme Court. Enthusiastic anti-Indian sentiments seemed fairly absent in New England.
As public support for Indians grew throughout
World War II , and as India's independence came closer to reality, Indians argued for an end to their legislative discrimination. The repeal of Chinese exclusion laws in 1943 and the granting of naturalization privileges to Chinese encouraged Indians to hope for similar gains. Hurdling over many members of Congress and the
American Federation Of Labor , which vehemently opposed removing legislative measures barricading Indian immigration and naturalization, the Indian community succeeded in gaining support among several prominent congressmen, as well as President
Franklin D. Roosevelt . The support culminated in the signing into law by President
Truman on July 2, 1946, of the
Luce-Celler Act . This Act reversed the Thind decision, insofar as allowing naturalization to Indians, and set a token quota for their immigration at 100 per year.
In 1965, President
Lyndon Johnson signed the
Hart-Celler Immigration Act , which phased out the national origins quota system first instituted in 1921. In 1965–1970, 27,859 Indian immigrants entered the United States. Immigration from India in 1965–1993 was 558,980.
{Link without Title}
- http://www.pbs.org/rootsinthesand/i_bhagat2.html
- http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/SSEAL/echoes/chapter10/chapter10.html
- Full text of case at Findlaw
