03/28/2018 Tungol Law Headline News "120th Anniversary of United States v. Wong Kim Ark"

Today marks the 120th anniversary of United States v. Wong Kim Ark. Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco, but barred from re-entry to the U.S. on a return trip from China under the Chinese Exclusion Act.

In his historic case, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified the meaning of the citizenship clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and made clear individuals born in the U.S. were American citizens at birth. This marked a major victory for Chinese Americans and a milestone in Asian American, California, and constitutional history.

United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that “a child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent, who, at the time of his birth, are subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent domicil and residence in the United States, and are there carrying on business, and are not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China”, automatically became a. U.S. citizen at birth. This decision established an important precedent in its interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

Full details of the case are available at https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/169/649 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Wong_Kim_Ark.

You can learn more about Wong Kim Ark and his landmark case at these two San Francisco events:

PRESS CONFERENCE:
March 28, 2018, 1:00 PM
Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association
843 Stockton Street, San Francisco CA 94108

FILM SCREENING:
March 28, 2018, 6:00 PM
14: Dred Scott, Wong Kim Ark & Vanessa Lopez
Asian Law Caucus
55 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94111

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