Wong Wing v. United States, 163 U.S. 228 (1896), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court found that the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution forbid the imprisonment at hard labor without a jury trial for noncitizens convicted of illegal entry to or presence in the United States.
The case began in 1892 when Wong Wing and three other Chinese nationals were arrested for unlawful presence in the United States, violating the Geary Act. A commissioner of the Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Michigan sentenced the four men to 60 days imprisonment at hard labor, after which they would be deported to China. After the prisoners' petitions, for writs of habeas corpus were denied, the Supreme Court granted cert.
In May 1896, the Supreme Court reversed the circuit court's judgment, ruling that Wing's Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights were violated because the commissioner lacked jurisdiction to sentence Wing to imprisonment at hard labor. The circuit court shouldn't have denied Wing's habeas corpus petition because Wing was sentenced to a criminal punishment without a jury trial. Thus the Court reversed the circuit court's judgment.
This case established that noncitizens subject to criminal proceedings are entitled to the same constitutional protections available to citizens. The Court held that the protections guaranteed by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments extend to foreign nationals as well as American citizens. The ruling was issued on the same day as the Court upheld racial segregation laws in its infamous Plessy v. Ferguson decision.
Background
Geary Act
The Geary Act of 1892, an extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act, denied U.S. citizenship to Chinese immigrants. The Act required Chinese residents to carry residence certificates issued by the federal government to prove they entered the country legally. Section 4 of the Act of 1892 provides:
Briefly, Chinese individuals unlawfully present in the U.S. faced up to a year of imprisonment and hard labor followed by deportation.
Incident
On July 15, 1892, John Graves, commissioner of the U.S. Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, ruled that Wong Wing, Lee Poy, Lee You Tong, and Chan Wah Dong were illegal Chinese in the United States and had no right to remain in the United States. John Graves ruled that these people be imprisoned in the Detroit House of Correction for 60 days of hard labor from and including the date of commitment; in the end, they were to be removed from the United States to China.
The Chinese thus immediately applied for a writ of habeas corpus to the judges of the United States Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, requesting the release of their imprisonment and restraint of their liberty, alleging that doing so was unlawful, without warrant of law and contrary to the Constitution and laws of the United States. The rules were based on the Geary Act of1892, entitled "An Act to prohibit the coming of Chinese persons into the United States."
District Appeal
On July 22, 1892, after hearing arguments from counsel, the district court ordered that the writ of habeas corpus be discharged and that the persons arrested be remanded to the custody of Nicholson, the keeper of the District house of correction, to serve their original sentences. Based on this decision, an appeal was filed with the Supreme Court. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Opinion of the Court
In a majority opinion by Justice Shiras, the Court explained that Congress has the power to exclude, deport, and detain classes of noncitizens as a matter of public policy. Because deportation isn't a criminal punishment, Congress may deport noncitizens without a jury trial. However, imprisonment at hard labor is a criminal punishment, and imposing criminal punishment without a jury trial to establish a defendant's guilt violates the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. The Court emphasized that constitutional protections aren't limited to United States citizens. Any person within the United States is entitled to the protections guaranteed by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. As a resident in the United States, Wong Wing is entitled to the Fifth Amendment right to due process and the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. Wing was being held without being afforded those protections. Accordingly, Wing's petition for a writ of habeas corpus was granted. The judgment of the circuit court was reversed.