Yick Wo v. Hopkins

Petitioner

Yick Wo

Respondent

Peter Hopkins, San Francisco Sheriff

Petitioner's Claim

That San Francisco was enforcing an ordinance in an unlawfully discriminatory manner against the defendant and other Chinese persons.

Chief Lawyers for Petitioner

Hall McAllister, D. L. Smoot, L. H. Van Schaick

Chief Lawyers for Respondent

Alfred Clarke, H. G. Sieberst

Justices for the Court

Samuel Blatchford, Joseph P. Bradley, Stephen Johnson Field, Horace Gray, John Marshall Harlan I, Stanley Matthews (writing for the Court), Samuel Freeman Miller, Morrison Remick Waite, William Burnham Woods

Justices Dissenting

None

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

10 May 1886

Decision

Yick Wo's conviction for violating the ordinance was unconstitutional.

Related Cases

• Truax v. Raich, 239 U.S. 33 (1915).
• Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada, 305 U.S. 337 (1938).
• Ambach v. Norwick, 441 U.S. 68 (1979).

Further Readings

• Johnson, John W., ed. Historic U.S. Court Cases, 1690-1990: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing, 1992.
• Nelson, William Edward. The Fourteenth Amendment: From Political Principle to Judicial Doctrine. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.
• Pole, J. R. The Pursuit of Equality in American History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.