In 1849 Chief Justice Taney's Court delivered a 5-4 decision on the
legal status of immigrants and free blacks under the federal
commerce power. The closely divided decision, further emphasized by
the fact there were eight opinions, played a part in the
increasingly contested politics over growing immigration, and the
controversies about fugitive slaves and the western expansion of
slavery that resulted in the Compromise of 1850.
In the decades after the Civil War federal regulation of
immigration almost entirely displaced the role of the states. Yet,
over a century later, Justice Scalia in "Arizona v. US" appealed to
the era when states exercised greater control over who they allowed
to cross their borders; a dissent which has returned the Passenger
Cases to the contemporary relevance. The Passenger Cases provide a
counter-history that allowed the Court to affirm federal supremacy
and state-federal cooperation in "Arizona I" (2011) and "II"
(2012).
In "The Passenger Cases and the Commerce Clause" Tony Allan
Freyer focuses on the antebellum Supreme Court's role prescribing
state-federal regulation of immigrants, the movement of free blacks
within the United States and on the origins, state court decisions,
federal precedents, appellate arguments, and opinion-making that
culminated in the Court's decision of the "Passenger Cases." The
Court's split decision provided political legitimacy for the 1850
Compromise: enactment of a stronger fugitive slave law, admission
of slavery in western territories based on popular vote of
residents (popular sovereignty), and the abolition of the slave
trade in Washington D.C. The divided opinions in the "Passenger
Cases" also influenced the immigrant and slavery crises which
disrupted the balance between free and slave-labor states,
culminating in the Civil War. The states did indeed enact laws
enabling exclusion of undesirable white immigrants and free
blacks.
The 5-4 division of the Court anticipated the better known, but
even more divisive, views of the Justices in the "Dred Scott" case
(1857). And in considering the post-Reconstruction evolution of new
standards by which to judge immigration issues, the Passenger Cases
revealed the continuing controversy over how to treat those who
wish to come to our country, even as federal law came to dominate
the regulation of immigration. These issues continued to complicate
immigration law as much today as they did more than a century and a
half ago. The persistence of these problems suggested that a
"decent respect to the opinions of mankind" continued to demand a
coherent, humane, and more consistent immigration policy.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
