United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Lem Moon Sing v. United States, 158 U.S. 538 (1895)

Lem Moon Sing v. United States

No. 946

Argued April 18-19, 1895

Decided May 27, 1895

158 U.S. 538

Syllabus

The power of Congress to exclude aliens altogether from the United States, or to prescribe the terms and conditions upon which they may come to this country, and to have its declared policy in that respect enforced exclusively through executive officers without judicial intervention, having been settled by previous adjudications, it is now decided that a statute passed in execution of that power is applicable to an alien who has acquired a commercial domicil within the United States but who, having voluntarily left the country, although for a temporary purpose, claims the right under some law or treaty to reenter it.

Lau Ow Bew v. United States, 144 U. S. 47, distinguished from this case. No opinion is expressed upon the question whether, under the facts stated in the application for the writ of habeas corpus, Lem Moon Sing was entitled, of right, under some law or treaty to reenter the United States.

The case is stated in the opinion.

Page 158 U. S. 539