In the various Chinese exclusion cases the same principles as those already laid down have been applied. Inasmuch, however, as their application has involved questions of personal liberty rather than of property, their adoption by the courts has seemed to some oppressive, and in the Ju Toy case,15 decided in 1905, earnest dissenting opinions were filed. In Chae Chan Ping v. United States16 the court held valid the Act of 1888 prohibiting Chinese laborers from entering the United States who had departed before the passage, having a certificate issued under the Act of 1882 as amended by the Act of 1884 granting them permission to return. This the court did, even though it recognized that the Act of 1888 was in contravention of express stipulations of the Treaties of 1868 and 1880 between the United States and China. In Fang Yue Ting v. United States the doctrine was again declared that the provisions of an act of Congress passed in the exercise of its constitutional authority must be upheld by the courts, even though in contravention of an earlier treaty. The power to exclude or expel aliens it held to be vested in the political departments of the government, and to be executed by the executive authority except so far as the judicial department has been authorized by treaty or statute to intervene, or where some provision of the Constitution has been violated. Having this right, the executive department, it was held, might be authorized to provide a system of registration and identification of Chinese laborers, and to require them to obtain certificates of residence, and to provide for the deportation of those not so obtaining certificates within a year. The provision of the act that the executive officer acting in behalf of the United States should bring the Chinese laborer before a federal court in order that he might be heard and the facts upon which depended his right to remain in the country decided, was held valid, the duty that imposed upon the court being declared judicial in character. " When," the opinion declared, " in the form prescribed by law, the executive officer acting in behalf of the United States, brings the Chinese laborer before the judge, in order that he may be heard, and the facts upon which depends his right to remain in the country be decided, a case is duly submitted to the judicial power; for here are all the elements of a civil case - a complainant, a defendant, and a judge - actor, reus et judex."

15 United States v. Ju Toy, 198 U. S. 263; 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 644; 49 L. ed. 1040. 16 130 U. S. 581; 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 623; 32 L. ed. 1068.

In Ekiu v. United States'17 it was held that in reaching the determination whether an alien is lawfully entitled to enter the country, it is not necessary for the administration to take testimony. The court, however, say: "An alien immigrant, prevented from landing by any such officer claiming authority to do so under an Act of Congress, and thereby restrained of his liberty, is doubtless entitled to a writ of habeas corpus to ascertain whether the restraint is lawful.18 And Congress may, if it sees fit, as in the statutes in question in United States v. Jung Ah Lung, just cited, authorize the courts to investigate and ascertain the facts on which the right to land depends. But, on the other hand, the final determination of those facts may be intrusted by Congress to executive officers; and in such a case, as in all others, in which a statute gives a discretionary power to an officer, to be exercised by him upon his own opinion of certain facts, he is made the sole and exclusive judge of the existence of those facts, and no other tribunal, unless expressly authorized by law to do so, is at liberty to re-examine or controvert the sufficiency of the evidence on which he acted.19

17 142 U. S. 65; 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 336; 35 L. ed. 1146.

18 Citing Chew Heong v. United States, 112 U. S. 536; 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 255; 28 L. ed. 770; United States v. Jung Ah Lung, 124 U. S. 621; 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 663; 31 L. ed. 591; Wan Shing v. United States, 140 U. S. 424; 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 729; 35 L. ed. 503.

It is not within the province of the judiciary to order that foreigners who have never been naturalized, nor acquired any domicile or residence within the United States, nor ever been admitted into the country pursuant to law, shall be permitted to enter, in opposition to the constitutional and lawful measures of the legislative and executive branches of the national government. As to such persons, the decisions of executive or administrative officers, acting within powers expressly conferred by Congress, are due process of law.20

The statute does not require inspectors to take any testimony at all, and allows them to decide on their own inspection and examination the question of the right of any alien immigrant to land. The provision relied on merely empowers inspectors to administer oaths and to take and consider testimony, and requires only testimony so taken to be entered of record.

The decision of the inspector of immigration being in conformity with the Act of 1891, there can be no doubt that it was final and conclusive against the petitioner's right to land in the United States. The words of section 8 are clear to that effect, and were manifestly intended to prevent the question of an alien immigrant's right to land, when once decided adversely by an inspector, acting within the jurisdiction conferred upon him, from being impeached or reviewed, in the courts or otherwise, save only by appeal to the inspector's official supervisors, and in accordance with the provisions of the Act."

In Lem Moon Sing v. United States21 the contention was that while, generally speaking, the administrative officers might have jurisdiction under the statute to exclude an alien who was not by law or treaty entitled to enter, yet if they do exclude an alien who is legally entitled to enter, they exceed their jurisdiction and their illegal.action presents a judicial question for the decision of which the courts may intervene. The Supreme Court, however, refused to sustain the contention, saying: u That view, if sustained, would bring into the courts every case of an alien who claimed the right to come into the United States under some law or treaty, but was prevented from doing so by the executive branch of the government. This would defeat the manifest purpose of Congress in committing to subordinate immigration officers and to the Secretary of the Treasury exclusive authority to determine whether a particular alien seeking admission into this country belongs to the class entitled by some law or treaty to come into the country, or to a class forbidden to enter the United States. Under that interpretation of the Act of 1894 the provision that the decision of the appropriate immigration or custom's officers should be final, unless reversed on appeal to the Secretary of the Treasury, would be of no practical value,"

19 Citing Martin v. Mott, 12 Wh.: 19; 6L. ed. 537; Philadelphia & T. R. Co. v. Stimpson, 14 Pet. 448; 10 L. ed. 535; Benson v. McMahon. 127 U. S 457; 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1240; 32 L. ed. 234; Oteiza y Cortes v. Jacobus, 136 U. S. 330; 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1031; 34 L. ed. 464.

20 Citing Murray v. Hoboken Land & Imp. Co., 18 How. 272; 15 L. ed. 372; Hilton v. Merritt, 110 U. S. 97; 3 Sup. Ct. Rep. 548; 28 L. ed. 83.

21 158 U. S. 538; 15 Sup. Ct. Rep. 967; 39 L. ed. 1082.