David Josiah Brewer

“ But can it be within the power of Congress to control all the dealings of our citizens with resident aliens? If that be possible, the door is open to the assumption by the national government of an almost unlimited body of legislation. By the census of 1900 the population of the United States between the oceans was, in round numbers, 76,000,000. Of these, 10,000,000 were of foreign birth, and 16,000,000 more were of foreign parentage. Doubtless some have become citizens by naturalization, but certainly scattered through the country there are millions of aliens. ”

“ The same power must exist as to cooperation in an equally unlawful stay. The indictment sets forth the facts that constitute such cooperation, and need not allege the conclusion of law. On the principle of the cases last cited, in order to make its prohibition effective, the law can throw the burden of finding out the fact and date of a prostitute's arrival from another country upon those who harbor her for a purpose that presumably they know, in any event, to be contrary to law. ”

“ The act charged is only one included in the great mass of personal dealings with aliens. It is her own character and conduct which determine the question of exclusion or removal. The acts of others may be evidence of her business and character. But it does not follow that Congress has the power to punish those whose acts furnish evidence from which the government may determine the question of her expulsion. Every possible dealing of any citizen with the alien may have more or less induced her coming. ”

“ It is true that, in such instances, the legislature has power to change the substantive law of crimes, and it has been thought that when it is said to create a conclusive presumption as to a really disputable fact, the proper mode of stating what it does, at least, as a general rule, is to say that it has changed the substantive law. ”

“ While the keeping of a house of ill-fame is offensive to the moral sense, yet that fact must not close the eye to the question whether the power to punish therefor is delegated to Congress or is reserved to the state. ”

“ The principle that it can exercise only the powers granted to it would seem too apparent to have required to be enforced by all those arguments which its enlightened friends, while it was depending before the people, found it necessary to urge. ”

“ If Congress can forbid the entry and order the subsequent deportation of professional prostitutes, it can punish those who cooperate in their fraudulent entry. 'If Congress has power to exclude such laborers . ”