United States v. Wong Kim Ark

Appellant

United States

Appellee

Wong Kim Ark

Appellant's Claim

That the U.S. district court's affirmation of Wong's citizenship was in error.

Chief Lawyers for Appellant

Solicitor General Holmes Conrad, George D. Collins

Chief Lawyer for Appellee

Thomas D. Riordan

Justices for the Court

David Josiah Brewer, Henry Billings Brown, Horace Gray (writing for the Court), Rufus Wheeler Peckham, George Shiras, Jr., Edward Douglass White

Justices Dissenting

Melville Weston Fuller, John Marshall Harlan I (Joseph McKenna did not participate)

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

28 March 1898

Decision

In favor of appellee Wong.

Significance

This was the first case in which the Court interpreted Section I of the Fourteenth Amendment, in which all persons born in the United States are defined as citizens.

Related Cases

• Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356 (1886).
• Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U.S. 303 (1979).