Congress to Apologize for the Chinese Exclusion Act?

 
The U.S. Congress is considering apologizing for the discriminatory 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and related legislation, which severely limited and restricted immigration to the United States from China.  The Supreme Court upheld the Chinese Exclusion Act in an infamous decision aptly known as The Chinese Exclusion Case (1889).  In that case, the Court created the “plenary power” doctrine, which for the last 100+ years has immunized  the immigration laws from meaningful substantive review by the courts.  The Court has not overruled The Chinese Exclusion Case, which, as a lawyer would put it, remains “good” — if not just — law.

Martin Gold, a partner in Covington & Burling’s Washington office, has been leading efforts to pressure Congress to act on the apology.  Gold is the grandson of a Russian Jewish immigrant from Belarus.

KJ