Chinese Immigrants in the California Supreme Court The Earliest Civil Cases :The Earliest Civil Cases 

Abstract

In April, 1862 California enacted a law that imposed a capitation tax of $2.50 per month on all adult “Mongolians” residing in the state, with a few exceptions. According to its caption, its purpose was to discourage the immigration of the Chinese into California. A San Francisco Chinese named Lin Sing, acting almost certainly with the support of Chinese organizations, challenged the law and his challenge was sustained by the California Supreme Court. In the case of Lin Sing v. Washburn1 it ruled that the law was an attempt by a state to regulate foreign commerce, which included immigration, and as such trenched impermissibly on a federal power that was paramount in this domain. The case is of considerable significance for what it had to say about the extent of the federal immigration power vis-a-vis the states. It was also the first instance in which Chinese litigants succeeded in having a California law declared unconstitutional. Lin Sing was not the first time that Chinese immigrants found themselves involved in major Supreme Court civil litigation. In the previous decade, roughly the first decade of substantial Chinese immigration into the state, Chinese civil litigants appeared six times before the California tribunal either as petitioners or respondents. The purpose of this article is to examine these very early cases, as much for what they reveal about the structure and dynamics of the early immigrant community as for what they may tell us about the court or for any legal significance they might have. I reserve until the end a more detailed discussion of the Lin Sing case.