Pacific Coast Law Journal: Containing all the Decisions... 2 vols.
1878 Pacific Coast Law Journal 2 Vols - First Printing of Landmark In re Ah Yup Asian Naturalization Decision Baggett, William T. Pacific Coast Law Journal: Containing all the Decisions of the Supreme Court of California, and of the U.S. Circuit and U.S. District Courts for the District of California: And Important Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, and Higher Courts of Other States. San Francisco: W.T. Baggett & Co., 1878-1879. 2 volumes. Volume I: February 23, 1878, to August 15, 1878.Volume II: August 15, 1878, to February 28, 1879. First edition. Two volumes. Octavo. [iv], 518; [iv], 529, [1] pp. Contemporary law sheep, gilt-lettered red and black morocco labels and an additional leather owner's labels ("Edgar Mason"). Heavy external wear, soiling, and scuffing to leather; boards of volume two cracked but secured by cords. Early pencil ownership signature ("C.H. Byrne") to the title page of Volume I; ink property stamps of "B.K. Collier" to the front free endpapers. Text blocks clean and bright. A good, structurally sound set of a scarce and fragile Western legal periodical. $500. An influential 19th-century legal periodical that served as a vital regional reference by compiling written opinions, ongoing commentaries, and cross-reference tables from key California and federal courts. Most notably, Volume I contains the landmark federal decision In re Ah Yup (1 F. Cas. 223), issued on April 29, 1878, by the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of California. Written by Judge Lorenzo Sawyer, this controversial ruling deemed residents of Asian descent ineligible for United States naturalization. Judge Sawyer interpreted existing statutes as restricting citizenship solely to "free white persons" and persons of African descent, formally establishing the nation's first major "racial prerequisite" citizenship precedent. This foundational legal framework heavily influenced the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and officially restricted Asian immigrants from naturalized American citizenship until the McCarran-Walter Act permanently abolished racial restrictions on naturalization in 1952.
Price: $500.00
Book number 86298