A Ruling on the Geary Act
Commissioner Emery issues a new interpretation of Chinese Exclusion, ordering deportation based on the failure to register under the Geary Act.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
United States Commissioner Emery rendered a decision yesterday in the case of two Chinese men, Ah Sam and Wong Wong, charged with being unlawfully in the United States. Their defense attempted to show they came to the country as children prior to the act of May 6, 1882. The Commissioner's ruling focused on the Geary Act, which requires persons of Chinese descent to establish by affirmative proof their lawful right to remain. The Commissioner held that the legal presumption is that all those entitled to remain have obeyed the law and registered; therefore, those who have not registered are presumed not entitled to remain. Doubts in this case were resolved against the defendants, and their deportation was ordered.
“The legal presumption is that all Chinamen 'entitled to remain in the United States' have obeyed the law and registered.”
This ruling highlights the aggressive, systemic legal apparatus used during the Chinese Exclusion era to strip individuals of their rights, a dark period in Seattle's civic history that deeply shaped the local community.
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