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In re Gee Hop (N.D. CA 1895)
United States District Court for the Northern District of California
In People v. Hall, the California Supreme Court did not conceal its prejudicial attitudes, reasoning that the legislature intended to place "Whites" in a different and better classification than people of color. Chy Lung and Chae Chan Ping, decided decades later, justifiy exclusion of Asian Americans in jurisdictional terms, emphasizing Congress' broad power under the Constitution over issues like immigration and naturalization.
Gee Hop is a decision of a District Court judge applying the Chinese Exclusion Act to a Chinese man who was naturalized as a citizen by a New Jersey Court in 1890 and obtained a passport from the Department of State. Although the conclusion interpreting that Act is not surprising, consider whether the reasoning in Gee Hop is more similar to Chy Lung and Chae Chan Ping or Hall?
Note how the Court uses the Chinese Exclusion Act to bootstrap meaning into the racial categories of sec. 2169.
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