Toyota v. United States, 268 U.S. 402 (1925)
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Toyota v. United States
No. 231
Argued March 18, 1925
Decided May 25, 1925
268 U.S. 402
ON CERTIFICATE FROM CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT
Syllabus
1. A person of the Japanese race, born in Japan, may not legally be naturalized under the seventh subdivision of § 4 of the Act of June 29, 1906, as amended May 9, 1918, 34 Stat. 601, 40 Stat. 542; nor under the Act of July 19, 1919, 41 Stat. 222. P. 407.
2. The seventh subdivision, supra, in permitting "any alien" who has rendered specified military or maritime service and fulfills other prescribed conditions, on presentation of the required declaration of intention, to petition for naturalization without proof of 5 years’ residence in the United States, and in permitting "any alien" serving in the forces of the United States during the time the country was engaged in the late war to file his petition without such declaration or such proof of residence, was not intended in those cases to eliminate the distinction made in Rev.Stats. 2169 based on color or race, but, like earlier acts using the same phrase, refers to aliens who might, consistently with that distinction, become citizens. P. 409.
3. In § 2 of the above Act of 1918, providing that nothing in the Act shall repeal or in any way enlarge Rev.Stats. § 2169 "except as specified in the seventh subdivision of this Act and under the limitation therein defined," the exception does not imply an intention to depart from the race or color distinction of § 2169 as to the aliens mentioned in the seventh subdivision, but refers to the provision there made for naturalization of native-born Filipino servicemen. Id.
4. Prior to the Act of 1906, supra, citizens of the Philippine Islands were not eligible to naturalization under Rev.Stats. § 2169, because not aliens, and therefore not within its terms. P. 410.
5. The Act of 1906, supra, § 30 of which extends the naturalization laws, with some modifications, to "persons not citizens who owe permanent allegiance to the United States and who may become residents of any state or organized Territory of the United States," did not disturb the distinction based on race or color in Rev.Stats. § 2169. P. 411.
6. Prior to the Act of 1918, supra, Filipinos not being " free white persons " or " of African nativity " were not eligible to citizenship of the United States; but an effect of that act was to authorize the naturalization of those native-born Filipinos, of whatever race or color, having the qualifications specified in § 4, subdiv. seventh. Id.
7. The Act of July 19, 1919, supra, provided that "any person of foreign birth" who served in the forces in the late war should under certain conditions, "have the benefits of" the seventh subdivision of § 4 of the Act of June 29, 1906, supra, as amended. Held that "any person of foreign birth" is not more comprehensive than "an alien" in the latter act. P. 412.
Questions certified by the circuit court of appeals, arising upon an appeal by Toyota from a decree of the district court (290 F. 971) cancelling his certificate of naturalization in a proceeding brought by the government for that purpose under the Naturalization Act.