End date 1924 | ||
Full case name Chung Fook v. Edward White, Commissioner of Immigration for the Port of San Francisco Citations 264 U.S. 443 (more)
44 S.Ct. 361, 68 L.Ed. 781 Prior history 287 F. 533 (9th Cir.), cert. granted, 262 U.S. 740 (1923). Majority Sutherland, joined by Taft, McKenna, Holmes, Van Devanter, McReynolds, Brandeis, Butler, Sanford Ruling court Supreme Court of the United States | ||
Chung Fook v. White, 264 U.S. 443 (1924), was a landmark Supreme Court case. It was significant in that it marked the end of the era of strict plain meaning interpretation of statutes and the beginning of the looser American Rule that the intent of the law was more important than its text.
A man did not have the automatic right to bring his wife to the United States if he married her after he entered there even if that exception was not explicitly mentioned in the law. The Court recognized that the statute did not seem to make sense the way it gave a particular right to a naturalized citizen that a native-born citizen (Chung Fook) was not permitted. The Court therefore stated that the issue of a law discriminating against native-born citizens was not for the courts to fix; it was the job of Congress to write laws that made sense and the job of the courts "is simply to enforce the law as it is written, unless clearly unconstitutional."