Asian American Law Journal
Volume 10 Issue 1
Article 10
January 2003
Syllabus: Asian Pacific Americans and the Law
Gabriel J. Chin
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Recommended Citation
Gabriel J. Chin, Syllabus: Asian Pacific Americans and the Law, 10 Asian Am. L.J. 115 (2003).
Available at: http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/aalj/vol10/iss1/10
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http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38787C
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SYLLABUS: ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICANS AND
THE LAW'
Gabriel J. Chin
I. ASIAN AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE: WHAT AND WHY?
A. Introduction
Forbackground: RONALD T. TAKAKI, STRANGERS FROM A DIFFERENT
SHORE 3-18 (1989).
B.
APA Invisibility and Foreignness
REPORT TO THE GOVERNOR, SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF
THE STATE OF WYOMING RECOMMENDING REPEAL OF THE RACIALLY
DISCRIMINATORY ALIEN LAND LAW, 1-15 (2000).
Gabriel J. Chin, The Plessy Myth: Justice Harlanand the Chinese Cases,
82 IOWA L. REV. 151, 151-57 (1996) (hereinafter "The Plessy Myth").
Gabriel J. Chin, Segregation'sLast Stronghold. Race Discriminationand
the ConstitutionalLaw of Immigration,46 UCLA L. REV. 1, 23-26 (1998)
(hereinafter "Segregation'sLast Stronghold").
© 2003 Gabriel J. Chin
1.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: The field of Asian Pacific Americans and the Law is new and
rapidly developing. Many basic, significant questions about APAs and the law are unexplored, perhaps
because the first numerically significant group of APA legal scholars joined the academy in the mid1990s. This class will expose members to some of the important legal materials, identify some areas
worthy of further exploration, and begin examining some of those areas in further depth through
research papers. The limited amount of work which has been done in the field offers opportunities for
classes like this: members with the time and interest can use their research paper as a vehicle for
performing original research with an eye toward publishing their results.
Three questions will be at the center of the seminar as currently conceived: 1) how APAs were
treated in the past; 2) how the treatment of APAs compared to that of other racial groups; and 3) how, if
at all, this history is relevant today.
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Are Asians Irish or Black?
Chris K. Iij ima, The Era of We-Construction: Reclaiming the Politics of
Asian PacificAmerican Identity and Reflections on the Critiqueof the
Black/White Paradigm,29 COLUM. HUM. RTS. L. REV. 47, 47-50, 68-89
(1997).
Janine Young Kim, Note, Are Asians Black? The Asian American Civil
Rights Agenda andthe ContemporarySignificance of the Black/White
Paradigm, 108 YALE L.J. 2385, 2385-2412 (1999).
FURTHER READING
General
ROBERT S. CHANG, DISORIENTED: ASIAN-AMERICANS, LAW, AND THE
NATION-STATE (1999).
Robert S. Chang, Toward an Asian American Legal Scholarship:Critical
Race Theory, Post-Structuralismand NarrativeSpace, 81 CAL. L. REV.
1241 (1993), 1 ASIAN L.J. 3 (1994).
ASIAN AMERICANS AND THE LAW: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY
PERSPECTIVES (Charles McClain, ed., 1994).
Racial Perspectives on Scholarship
Randall L. Kennedy, Racial Critiquesof Legal Academia, 102 HARV. L.
REV. 1745 (1989).
Jim Chen, Unloving, 80 IOWAL. REV. 145 (1994).
Neil Gotanda, Chen the Chosen: Reflections on Unloving, 81 IOWA L. REV.
1585 (1996).
Critical Race Theory
LESLIE BENDER & DAAN BRAVEMAN, POWER, PRIVILEGE, AND LAW: A
CIVIL RIGHTS READER (1995).
CRITICAL RACE THEORY: THE KEY WRITINGS THAT FORMED THE
MOVEMENT (Kimberle Crenshaw et al. eds., 1996).
CRITICAL RACE THEORY: THE CUTTING EDGE (Richard Delgado & Jean
Stefancic eds., 2000).
CHIN SYLLABUS
2003]
RACE AND RACES: CASES AND RESOURCES FOR A DIVERSE AMERICA
(Juan F. Perea et al. eds., 2000).
II.
SECOND-CLAss ALIENS: CITIZENSHIP AND
IMMIGRATION
A.
Naturalization / "Aliens Ineligible to Citizenship"
Statutes
The Naturalization Act of Mar. 26, 1790, ch. 3, 1 Stat. 103 (repealed 1795).
Act of July 14, 1870, ch. 254, 7, 16 Stat. 254, 256.
In re Camille, 6 F. 256 (C.C. D. Or. 1880).
Application
The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act of May 6, 1882, ch. 126, 14, 22 Stat. 58
(repealed 1943).
Koreans. In re Charr, 273 F. 207 (W.D. Mo. 1921).
Japanese. Ozawa v. United States, 260 U.S. 178 (1922).
Indians. United States v. Thind, 261 U.S. 204 (1923).
Pilipinos. Toyota v. United States, 268 U.S. 402 (1925).
Statutory Reform
Chinese Repealer, Act of Dec. 17, 1943, Pub. L. No. 199, ch. 344, 57 Stat.
600 (1943).
McCarran Walter Act, Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.
Pub. L. No. 414, ch. 477, 311, 66 Stat. 163 (1952) (amended 1965).
Birthright Citizenship
The Plessy Myth, 158-59.
Toshiko Inaba v. Nagle, 36 F.2d 481 (9th Cir. 1929) (Female Citizenship).
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Immigration and Nationality Act, § 324(a).
Natsu Taylor Saito, Alien andNon-Alien Alike: Citizenship,
"Foreignness,"and RacialHierarchy in American Law, 76 OR. L. REV.
261, 263-67, 295-315 (1997).
FURTHER READING
IAN HANEY LOPEZ, WHITE BY LAW: THE LEGAL CONSTRUCTION OF RACE
(1998).
JOAN JENSEN, BROWN ISNOT WHITE: NATURALIZATION AND THE
CONSTITUTION IN PASSAGE FROM INDIA (1988).
B.
Immigration
Pan-Asian Statutes
The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act of May 6, 1882, ch. 126, 14, 22 Stat. 58
(repealed 1943).
Gentlemen's Agreement (1907-08).
Immigration Act of 1917, Act of Feb. 5, 1917, Pub. L. No. 301, ch. 29, 39
Stat. 874 - "Asiatic Barred Zone."
Immigration Act of 1924, Pub. L. No. 139, ch. 190, 43 Stat. 153 - "Aliens
Ineligible to Citizenship."
Policy
Segregation'sLast Stronghold,28-38.
Application
Exclusion. Chae Chan Ping v. United States, 130 U.S. 581 (1889).
Deportation. Fong Yue Ting v. United States, 149 U.S. 698 (1893); Act of
Nov. 3, 1893, ch. 14, 28 Stat. 7 (1893); Segregation'sLast Stronghold, 1621.
Procedures. Nishimura Ekiu v. United States, 142 U.S. 651 (1892).
Equity. United States v. Ah Sou, 138 F. 775 (9th Cir. 1905).
CHIN SYLLABUS
2003]
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Administrative Discretion. Exparte Tom Toy Tin, 230 F. 747 (N.D. Cal.
1916).
Mixed Race. Morrison v. California, 291 U.S. 82 (1934).
FURTHER READING
BILL ONG HING, MAKING AND REMAKING ASIAN AMERICA THROUGH
IMMIGRATION POLICY, 1850-1990 (1993).
LUCY SALYER, LAWS HARSH AS TIGERS: CHINESE IMMIGRANTS AND THE
SHAPING OF MODERN IMMIGRATION LAW (1995).
Gabriel J. Chin, The Civil Rights Revolution Comes to Immigration Law: A
New Look at the Immigration and NationalityAct of 1965, 75 N.C. L. REV.
273 (1996).
Christian G. Fritz, A Nineteenth Century "HabeasCorpus Mill": The
Chinese Before the FederalCourts in California,32 AM. J. OF LEGAL
HIST. 347 (1988).
III.
"SEGREGASIAN": JIM CROW FOR ASIANS
A. The "Driving Out"
Testimonial Disqualification. People v. Hall, 4 Cal. 399 (1854).
Restrictive Covenants. Gandalfo v. Hartman, 49 F. 181 (C.C.S.D. Cal.
1892); EDMUND 0. BELSHEIM, MODERN LEGAL FORMS, Preface, Sect.
3342, n.77 (West 1966).
Expulsion. In re Lee Sing, 43 F. 359 (C.C.N.D. Cal. 1890).
Quarantine. Jew Ho v. Williamson, 103 F. 10 (C.C.N.D. Cal. 1900).
Impoverishment. In re Tiburcio Parrott, 1 F. 481 (C.C. D. Cal. 1880).
Discriminatory Enforcement. Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356 (1886).
Immigration Procedures. United States v. Ju Toy, 198 U.S. 253 (1905).
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FURTHER READING
Gabriel J. Chin, Regulating Race: Asian Exclusion and the Administrative
State (in progress).
B.
Miscegenation, Voting, School Segregation, Violence
Miscegenation
Echevarria v. Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., 12 F. Supp. 632 (S.D. Cal.
1935).
In the Opinion of the Justices, 94 N.E. 558 (Mass. 1911).
PAULI MURRAY, STATES' LAWS ON RACE AND COLOR
(1951).
Naim v. Naim, 197 Va. 80, 87 S.E.2d 749 (1955), vacated by 350 U.S. 891
(1955), adheredto, 197 Va. 734, 90 S.E.2d 849 (1956).
Education
Wong Him v. Callahan, 119 F. 381 (C.C.N.D. Cal. 1902).
Gong Lum v. Rice, 275 U.S. 78 (1927).
Bond v. Tij Fung, 148 Miss. 462, 114 So. 332 (1927).
Farrington v. Tokushige, 273 U.S. 284 (1927).
Voting
Ahlo v. Smith, 8 Haw. 420 (1892).
CA. CONST. art. II, § 1, original version (266), amendment of 1926 (264).
IDAHO CONST. art. VI, § 3 (original version, 263).
Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1975, tit. II & III.
Violence
Wyoming Massacre.
CHIN SYLLABUS
2003]
FURTHER READING
Baldwin v. Franks, 120 U.S. 678 (1887).
CHARLES MCCLAIN, IN SEARCH OF EQUALITY: THE CHINESE STRUGGLE
AGAINST DISCRIMINATION INNINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICA (1994).
C.
Second Class Aliens
Alien Land Laws
Terrace v. Thompson, 263 U.S. 197 (1923).
Other Restrictions
In re Takuji Yamashita, 30 Wash. 234, 70 P. 482 (1902).
Yamashita v. Hinkle, 260 U.S. 199 (1922).
Heather Foster, Victim of Racism will Gain Posthumous Bar Membership,
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, Feb. 5, 2001.
MILTON KoNvITZ, THE ALIEN AND THE ASIATIC IN AMERICAN LAW
(1946).
Judicial Relief
Namba v. McCourt, 185 Or. 579, 204 P.2d 569 (1949).
Sei Fujii v. State, 38 Cal. 2d 718, 242 P.2d 617 (1952).
Oyama v. California, 332 US. 633 (1948).
Takahashi v. Fish & Game Comm'n, 334 U.S. 410 (1948).
Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948).
FURTHER READING
Keith Aoki, No Right to Own?: The Early Twentieth-Century "Alien Land
Laws" as a Prelude to Internment,40 B.C. L. REV. 37 (1998).
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IV. THE WORLD WAR II INTERNMENT OF JAPANESE
AMERICANS
A.
Internment
Exec. Order. No. 9066, 7 Fed. Reg. 1407 (1942).
Civilian Exclusion Order No. 27.
Curfew. Hirabayashi v. United States, 320 U.S. 81 (1943); Yasui v.
United States, 320 U.S. 115 (1943).
Exclusion. Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944).
Detention. Ex Parte Endo, 323 U.S. 283 (1944).
Resisters. Eric L. Muller, All the Themes but One, 66 U. CHI. L. REV. 1395
(1999); Takeguma v. United States, 156 F.2d 437 (9th Cir. 1946).
Neil Gotanda, Book Review, "Other Non-Whites" in American Legal
History: A Review ofJustice at War, 85 COLUM. L. REV. 1186 (1985).
B.
Redress
Legislative. Civil Liberties Act of 1988, Pub. L. No. 100-383, 102 Stat.
903-16 (1988) (codified at 50 U.S.C. app. 1989b).
Executive. Revocation of Executive Order 9066.
Judicial. Redress Cases. Korematsu v. United States, 584 F. Supp. 1406
(N.D. Cal. 1984).
Chris K. Iij ima, Reparationsand the "Model Minority" Ideology of
Acquiescence: The Necessity to Refuse to Return to the Original
Humiliation,40 B.C. L. REV. 385 (1998).
Mari J. Matsuda, Looking to the Bottom: CriticalLegal Studies and
Reparations,22 HARV. C.R.-C.L. L. REV. 323 (1987).
FURTHER READING
ROGER DANIELS, CONCENTRATION CAMPS NORTH AMERICA: JAPANESE IN
THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA DURING WORLD WAR 11 (1993).
20031
CHIN SYLLABUS
PETER IRONS, JUSTICE AT WAR: THE STORY OF THE JAPANESE
INTERNMENT CASES (1993).
V.
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
A.
Colonialism and Autonomy
1 0 0th
Anniversary of the Overthrow of the Hawai'ian Kingdom, Pub. L.
No. 103-150, 107 Stat. 1510 (1993) (Congressional acknowledgment and
apology).
Marybeth Herald, The Northern MarianasIslands: A Change in Course
under its Covenant with the United States, 71 OR. L. REV. 127 (1992).
Jon M. Van Dyke, The Evolving Legal RelationshipsBetween the United
States and its Affiliated US. FlagIslands, 14 U. HAw. L. REV. 445 (1992).
United States v. Nuesca, 945 F.2d 254 (9th Cir. 1991).
B.
Affirmative Action/Asian American Educational Admissions
Gabriel J. Chin et al., Beyond Self-Interest: Asian Pacific Americans
Toward a Community of Justice: A Policy Analysis of Affirmative Action
(1996), reprintedin 4 ASIAN PAC. AM. L.J. 129 (1996).
Honadle v. Univ. of Vermont, 56 F. Supp. 2d 419 (D. Vt. 1999).
Lau v. Nichols, 414 U.S. 563 (1974).
Grace W. Tsuang, Note, Assuring Equal Access of Asian Americans to
Highly Selective Universities, 98 YALE L.J. 659 (1989).
Selena Dong, Note, "Too Many Asians ": The Challenge of Fighting
DiscriminationAgainst Asian Americans and PreservingAffirmative
Action, 47 STAN. L. REV. 1027 (1995).
Ho v. San Francisco Unified Sch. Dist., 147 F.3d 854 (9th Cir. 1998).
San Francisco NAACP v. San Francisco Unified Sch. Dist., 59 F. Supp. 2d
1021 (N.D. Cal. 1999).
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FURTHER READING
Jerry Kang, Negative Action Against Asian Americans: The Internal
Instability of Dworkin 's Defense of Affirmative Action, 31 HARV. C.R.-C.L.
L. REv. 1 (1996).
Frank H. Wu, Neither Black nor White: Asian Americans and Affirmative
Action, 15 B.C. THIRD WORLD L.J. 225 (1995).
Daniel A. Farber & Suzanna Sherry, Is the Radical Critiqueof Merit AntiSemitic?, 83 CAL. L. REV. 853 (1995).
C.
Employment Relations and Discrimination
Wen Ho Lee Case.
Sumi K. Cho, ConvergingStereotypes in RacializedSexual Harassment:
Where the Model Minority Meets Suzy Wong, 1J. GENDER RACE & JUST.
177 (1997).
Julie Su, Making the Invisible Visible: The GarmentIndustry's Dirty
Laundry, 1 J. GENDER RACE & JUST. 405 (1997).
Hy-Vee Food Stores, Inc. v. Iowa Civil Rights Comm'n, 453 N.W.2d 512
(Iowa 1990).
Allison v. Allison, 491 So.2d 1201 (Fla. App. 1986).
"Reverse Discrimination." Young Fu Hsu v. New York State Div. of
Human Rights, 661 N.Y.S.2d 400 (App. Div. 1997).
D.
Family Formation/Family Law
Is Race Relevant to Custody?
In re Hunter, 49 Cal. App. 268, 193 P. 155 (1920).
In re Spence-Chapin Adoption Serv., 29 N.Y.2d 196, 274 N.E.2d 431
(1971).
Eddy Meng, Mail-OrderBrides: Gilded Prostitutionand the Legal
Response, 28 U. MICH. J.L. REFORM 197 (1994).
2003]
VI.
CHIN SYLLABUS
VIOLENCE/CRIMINAL LAW MATERIALS
A. Peremptory Strikes
United States v. Clemmons, 892 F.2d 1153 (3d Cir. 1989).
Lisa Ikemoto, Traces of the Master Narrative in the Story of African
American/KoreanAmerican Conflict: How We Constructed "Los
Angeles," 66 S. CAL. L. REv. 1581 (1993).
Jerry Kang, Note, Racial Violence Against Asian Americans, 106 HARV. L.
REv. 1926 (1993).
Vietnamese Fishermen's Ass'n v. Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, 518 F.
Supp. 993 (S.D. Tex. 1981).
Paula C. Johnson, The Social Constructionof Identity in Criminal Cases:
Cinema Verite and the Pedagogy of Vincent Chin, 1 MICH. J. RACE & L.
347 (1996).
United States v. Ebens, 800 F.2d 1422 (6th Cir. 1986), laterproceeding at
654 F. Supp. 144 (E.D. Mich. 1987).
Leti Volpp, (Mis)IdentifyingCulture: Asian Women and the "Cultural
Defense," 17 HARV. WOMEN'S L.J. 57 (1994).