Takao Ozawa v. United States

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Takao Ozawa v. United States 260 U.S. 178 (1922) was a case in which the United States Supreme Court found Takao Ozawa, a Japanese man, ineligible for naturalization. In 1922, Takao Ozawa filed for United States citizenship under the Naturalization Act of June 29, 1906 which allowed white persons and persons of African descent or African nativity to naturalize. He did not challenge the constitutionality of the racial restrictions. Instead, he attempted to have the Japanese classified as "white."

Contents

1 The bench

1.1 Opinion

2 Effects of the Decision
3 External links

The bench

Opinion

Written by: Associate Justice George Sutherland

Sutherland found that only Caucasians were white, and therefore the Japanese, by not being Caucasian, were not white and instead were members of an "unassimmilable race", lacking provisions in any Naturalization Act.

Effects of the Decision

Within three months, Sutherland carried a similarly disfavorable ruling on another Supreme Court case concerning another alien seeking U.S. citizenship, United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind

Both decisions had a deleterious effect to Asian Americans as a class, strengthening and re-affirming the racist policies of U.S. immigration laws. With successful judicial backing, policymakers passed more anti-Asian laws across the nation under the heavy lobbying by the burgeoning Asiatic Exclusion League. This trend continued until the civil rights movements of the 1960s.

External links

[Ozawa v. U.S.] on FindLaw.com

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