Alienation (law)

“ That positive provisions, in the Constitution, securing to individuals the benefits of fair trial, are also violated by the union of powers in the Alien Act, necessarily results from the two facts, that the act relates to alien friends, and that alien friends, being under the municipal law only, are entitled to its protection. ”

“ So many were the alienations of this kind, and so long were they continued, that it is no wonder that the interest of the lord and the heirs began to lose ground in the opinions of the people, which proceeded so far, as that, in the other cases, the lord, on the payment of a moderate fine, either before or after, was looked upon as obliged to consent to the alienation. Let us now see how the liberty of alienation gained ground, particularly in England.
In Henry the First’s time, a man was allowed to alienate his purchase, but not an estate that came by descent. ”

“ An alien, therefore, legally incapacitated for certain rights in the latter, may, by previous residence only in the former, elude his incapacity, and thus the law of one state be preposterously rendered paramount to the laws of another, within the jurisdiction of the other. ”

“ But so far has a contrary principle been carried, in every part of the United States, that, except on charges of treason, an alien has, besides all the common privileges, the special one of being tried by a jury of which one half may be also aliens.
It is said, further, that, by the law and practice of nations, aliens may be removed, at discretion, for offences against the law of nations; that Congress are authorized to define and punish such offences; and that to be dangerous to the peace of society is, in aliens, one of those offences. ”

“ In the case of a Subject who has committed a Crime that renders all society of his fellow-citizens with him prejudicial to the State, the Supreme Power has also the Right of inflicting Banishment to a Country abroad. ”

“ By the common law, an alien cannot acquire real property by operation of law, but may take it by act of the grantor, and hold it until office found; that is, until the fact of alienage is authoritatively established by a public officer, upon an inquest held at the instance of the government. ”

“ Resolved, That the enactment of any law which should directly, or by its effects, deprive the citizens of any of the States of this Union from emigrating, with their property, into any of the territories of the United States, will make such discrimination, and would, therefore, be a violation of the constitution, and the rights of the States from which such citizens emigrated, and in derogation of that perfect equality which belongs to them as members of this Union, and would tend directly to subvert the Union itself. ”

“ If, on the one side, it was said, that all persons born within a colony owed a perpetual allegiance to that colony, whoever might be the sovereign, the answer was, that the common law admitted no right in any part of the subjects to change their allegiance without the consent of their sovereign, and that the usurpation of such authority was itself rebellion ”

“ It is a distortion of those cases to explain them away on a theory that a citizen's assent to denationalization may be inferred from his having engaged in conduct that amounts to an 'abandonment of citizenship' or a 'transfer of allegiance.' Certainly an Act of Congress cannot be invalidated by resting decisive precedents on a gross fiction-a fiction baseless in law and contradicted by the facts of the cases. ”

“ A nation has the power, but never the right, to alienate its sovereignty, either in whole or in part, by delegating it to a hereditary family. Such an alienation, imposed amid the violence of conquest, borne out of habits of thought, or consented to in a moment of public aberration, binds neither the present generation nor those to come. ”

“ Generally speaking, and subject to the rule that aliens of all races must be treated alike under processes of law, a nation may deprive the alien of liberty of action, may prohibit or restrict his ownership of property, may forbid or delimit his employment in certain kinds of work or enterprises, and may expel and deport him, at its pleasure. In other words, the status and rights of an alien are determined almost absolutely by the municipal law in the country in which he is domiciled. ”

“ Banishment may be resorted to as punishment for crime; but among the powers reserved to the people, and not delegated to the government, is that of determining whether whole classes in our midst shall, for no crime but that of their race and birthplace, be driven from our territory.'
The right to be immune from arbitrary decrees of banishment certainly may be more important to 'liberty' than the civil rights which all aliens enjoy when they reside here. Unless they are free from arbitrary banishment, the 'liberty' they enjoy while they live here is indeed illusory. ”

“ The manifest object of the constitution and law, is to prevent the alien from being driven into the state courts, and there encountering the prejudices which were to be apprehended in the local courts; but this salutary purpose will be totally defeated, if by the residence of his adversaries in different states you compel him to go into the courts of the state where some of them reside. Hence the law founds the jurisdiction in any case where an alien is a party. ”

“ The assertion of an authority to deny to aliens the opportunity of earning a livelihood when lawfully admitted to the state would be tantamount to the assertion of the right to deny them entrance and abode, for in ordinary cases they cannot live where they cannot work. ”

“ It imposes forfeiture of citizenship and deprivation of the rights of citizenship as penalties for the commission of a crime. Its avowed purpose is to add to the penalties which the law had previously affixed to the offense of desertion from the military or naval service of the United States, and it denominates the additional sanctions provided as penalties.' 53 Pa., at 114-115. ”

“ It is, of course, true, that if an alien is not permitted to enter this country, or, having entered contrary to law, is expelled, he is in fact cut off from worshipping or speaking or publishing or petitioning in the country; but that is merely because of his exclusion therefrom. He does not become one of the people to whom these things are secured by our Constitution by an attempt to enter, forbidden by law. ”

“ In the cases which justify resistance, the principle upon which the citizen proceeds, is not that he has a legal or constitutional right to annul or repeal the offensive law,—which is the doctrine of the nullifiers,—but that he has a right, which he admits to be illegal and unconstitutional, but which he claims as a natural one, to make a violent opposition to its execution. ”

“ The consequences of allowing foreigners domiciled among us all the privileges of citizens, and all the immunities of aliens, are unjust. They thus obtain advantages which ought not to be conceded to them; whenever they please, they may sue in the state courts, but their opponents cannot remove the cause; whenever they think proper, they may sue in the federal courts. Thus, the policy of the law and the interests of the country are defeated. That policy is, to induce aliens of character to become naturalized ”

“ Stronger reasons then should exist to justify the banishment of a native than of a foreigner, of a man criminated for the first time than of one who has been often so situated.
But should a man who is banished and excluded for ever from the society of which he was a member be also deprived of his property? ”

“ In enacting § 22 of the Act of 1950, the Congress stated, 'The purpose * * * is to strengthen the provisions of existing law with respect to the exclusion and deportation of subversive aliens.' S.Rep. ”

“ A question would still occur, whether the Constitution had vested the discretionary power of admitting aliens in the federal government or in the state governments.
But it cannot be a true inference, that, because the admission of an alien is a favor, the favor may be revoked at pleasure. A grant of land to an individual may be of favor, not of right; but the moment the grant is made, the favor becomes a right, and must be forfeited before it can he taken away. To pardon a malefactor may be a favor, but the pardon is not, on that account, the less irrevocable. ”

“ It has been conceded by the government that these statutes do not apply to citizens, and this court made a most important decision based upon that concession. The rules of the Department declare that the statutes do not apply to citizens, and yet, in the face of all this, we are told that they may be enforced against citizens, and that Congress so intended. Banishment of a citizen not merely removes him from the limits of his native land, but puts him beyond the reach of any of the protecting clauses of the Constitution. ”

“ The consequence of this legislative and administrative policy is a clear authorization to resident enemy aliens to proceed in all courts until administrative or legislative action is taken to exclude them. Were this not true, contractual promises made to them by individuals, as well as promises held out to them under our laws, would become no more than teasing illusions. The doors of our courts have not been shut to peaceable law-abiding aliens seeking to enforce rights growing out of legal occupations. ”

“ That Congress may exclude aliens of a particular race from the United States; prescribe the terms and conditions upon which certain classes of aliens may come to this country; establish regulations for sending out of the country such aliens as come here in violation of law ”

“ If the foreign law is a penal statute, or if it offends our own policy, or is repugnant to justice or to good morals, or is calculated to injure this state or its citizens, or if we have not jurisdiction of parties who must be brought in to enable us to give a satisfactory remedy, or if, under our forms of procedure, an action here cannot give a substantial remedy, we are at liberty to decline jurisdiction.' 155 Mass. ”

“ The States may be called aliens to each other, with regard to their separate internal governments, as to which, no combination of States, in or out of Congress, have any right to dictate to one; and Federal and State powers, so far as they are divided, are alien to each other in the same way. If either of these aliens gains a right belonging to another, it must be by conquest or usurpation; and one or the other right of self-government must be taken from the people. ”

“ Another question is, whether the demandant was or was not capable of taking lands in the state of New York by descent? And this question is presented upon four different aspects of the facts.
In order to explain the views which I take of this part of the case, it will be necessary to state some general principles upon the subject of alienage. The rule commonly laid down in the books is, that every person who is born within the ligeance of a sovereign is a subject; and, e converso, that every person born without such allegiance is an alien. ”

“ There are many ways in which a person may be denied his rights, or be unable to enforce them in the tribunals of a State. The denial or inability may arise from direct legislation, depriving him of their enjoyment or the means of their enforcement, or discriminating against him or the class, sect, or race to which he belongs. ”

“ Here I understand you to assert the most profligate and infernal doctrine, that any State in this Union has a right to plunder, scourge and enslave any part of the human family within its borders, just so long as it deems it for its interest so to do, and that no one or body of persons beyond the limits of said state has a right to interfere by word or deed against it. ”

“ The denial of rights or the inability to enforce them, to which the section refers, is, in my opinion, such as arises from legislative action of the State, as, for example, an act excluding colored persons from being witnesses, making contracts, acquiring property, and the like. With respect to obstacles to the enjoyment of rights arising from other causes, persons of the colored race must take their chances of removing or providing against them with the rest of the community. ”

“ But when congress sees fit to further promote such a policy by subjecting the persons of such aliens to infamous punishment at hard labor, or by confiscating their property, we think such legilsation, to be valid, must provide for a judicial trial to establish the guilt of the accused.
No limits can be put by the courts upon the power of congress to protect, by summary methods, the country from the advent of aliens whose race or habits render them undesirable as citizens, or to expel such if they have already found their way into our land, and unlawfully remain therein. ”

“ He could not bequeath his tenancy, for he held only during life. He could not alienate without the consent of his lord, for he had his lands in consideration of his personal service; and although, in case of necessity, he was allowed a substitute, it was only such an one as was acceptable to the lord; whereas by alienation, the real tenant who was bound by oath to do the services out of the profits, was to lose them, and a stranger, perhaps an enemy, who was under no tie to the lord, was to enjoy them. Alienation, therefore, without the consent of the lord, was unlawful. ”

“ And, while Congress has exclusive jurisdiction over immigration, naturalization and the disposal of the public domain, each state, in the absence of any treaty provision to the contrary, has power to deny to aliens the right to own land within its borders. ”