California Supreme Court, 1861

Ex parte Ah Pong

Ex parte Ah Pong
California Supreme Court · Decided July 1, 1861 · Baldwin
19 Cal. 106

Ex parte Ah Pong

Opinion of the Court

Baldwin, J. delivered the opinion of the Court

Field, C. J. and Cope, J. concurring.

The prisoner must be discharged. The mere fact that the petitioner was a Chinaman residing in a mining district, does not subject him to the foreign miners’ tax. If the act is to be construed as imposing this tax, it cannot be supported, any more than could a law be sustained which imposed upon every man residing in a given section of the State a license as a merchant, whatever his occupation.

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