The Court's Decision
After the case was decided in a trial court and was appealed to and upheld by the California Supreme Court, it went to the United States Supreme Court via a writ of certiorari. Dean Acheson, the Secretary of State under President Harry S. Truman, presented the case for petitioners.
The petitioners of the case listed three grievances of the Alien Land Law as it was applied in this case:
- First, that it deprived Fred Oyama of the equal protection of the laws and of his privileges as an American citizen;
- Secondly, that it denied Kajiro Oyama equal protection of the laws;
- Thirdly, it contravened the due process clause by sanctioning a taking of property after expiration of the appropriate limitations period.
The Court agreed by a vote of 8 to 1 with the petitioners’ first contention – that is, that the Alien Land Law, as applied in this case, did indeed deprive Fred Oyama of the equal protection of California’s laws and of his privileges as an American citizen. Because this decision alone was grounds for reversal of the California Supreme Court decision, the Court saw no need to address the second and third contentions.
Read more about this topic: Oyama V. California
Famous quotes containing the words court and/or decision:
“As to “Don Juan,” confess ... that it is the sublime of that there sort of writing; it may be bawdy, but is it not good English? It may be profligate, but is it not life, is it not the thing? Could any man have written it who has not lived in the world? and tooled in a post-chaise? in a hackney coach? in a Gondola? against a wall? in a court carriage? in a vis a vis? on a table? and under it?”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Because of these convictions, I made a personal decision in the 1964 Presidential campaign to make education a fundamental issue and to put it high on the nation’s agenda. I proposed to act on my belief that regardless of a family’s financial condition, education should be available to every child in the United States—as much education as he could absorb.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)