Head Money Cases 1884
| Author | Daniel Brannen, Richard Hanes, Elizabeth Shaw |
| Pages | 1101-1107 |
Page 1101
Appellants: Edye & Another, Cunard Steamship Company
Appellee: W. H. Robertson
Appellants' Claim: That the Immigration Act of 1882 establishing a tax on immigrants entering the nation was unconstitutional.
Chief Lawyer for Appellants: Edwards Pierrepoint, Phillip J. Joachimsen, George DeForest Lord Chief Lawyer for
Appellee: Samuel Field Phillips, U.S. Solicitor General
Justices for the Court: Samuel Blatchford, Jospeh P. Bradley, Stephen J. Field, Horace Gray, John Marshall Harlan I, Stanley Matthews, Samuel F. Miller, Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite, William B. Woods
Justices Dissenting: None
Date of Decision: December 8, 1884
Decision: Ruled in favor of the Robertson and the United States by finding that Congress had authority to tax immigrant entry through its power to regulate commerce.
Significance: The decision supported Congress' power to regulate immigration into the country. It also recognized that Congress not only had power to tax through the Tax and Spending Clause of Article I of the U.S. Constitution, but also through the Commerce Clause as well. Congress passed numerous other laws regulating immigration through the following century.
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Immigration is the act of people coming to live in a foreign country. Often the term is confused with emigration which refers to people leaving their own country to live in another. Immigration to the United States has increased and declined in various time periods since the early colonists to the New World in the seventeenth century.
Through the nineteenth century until the 1930s the world experienced extensive immigration of peoples from one country to another. Over half of those immigrants came to the United States. Though many reasons spurred people to immigrate to a new country, searching for better jobs and economic opportunity was most common.
Through much of the nineteenth century, the U.S. government made little effort to regulate immigration as the California gold rush of 1849 attracted many Chinese laborers. Neither passports nor visas were required. Though immigration had long been central to American settlement, concern over it grew through the 1850s. Immigrants served as a source of inexpensive labor and it was believed took jobs away from U.S. citizens. Also, many immigrants did not readily blend into U.S. society causing considerable suspicion and fear among the general public. Although an economic depression in the United States in the 1870s greatly slowed immigration, Congress passed it first immigration law in 1875 barring entry to convicts and prostitutes.
With improving economic conditions by 1880, America once again became attractive. Immigration increased dramatically as did public concerns over the effects of immigration. Due to a shortage of farmland and increasing poverty in northwestern Europe, the new wave of immigration included many citizens of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
Responding to public pressure, Congress began passing more measures in 1882 to regulate immigration. One bill, the Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibited Chinese laborers from entering...
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