CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-EQUAL PROTECTION-VALIDITY OF STATE RESTRAINTS ON ALIEN OWNERSHIP OF LAND

Authors

Alfred W. Blumrosen S.Ed., University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

In the short period of five years, action on three governmental fronts has solved one problem of state legislation which seemed to violate a basic premise of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Congress, the Supreme Court and the courts of last resort of two states have acted to destroy the effectiveness of state laws which prohibited ownership of land by aliens ineligible for citizenship. These laws incorporated whatever classification Congress established for naturalization purposes into state statutes determining rights to own land. This process has resulted in recent years in discrimination against Orientals, particularly Japanese. The purpose of this comment is to trace the demise of certain of these statutes and to consider the broader question of whether state legislation which restricts alien ownership of land on other than racial grounds meets the requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Recommended Citation

Alfred W. Blumrosen S.Ed., CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-EQUAL PROTECTION-VALIDITY OF STATE RESTRAINTS ON ALIEN OWNERSHIP OF LAND, 51 Mich. L. Rev. 1053 (1953).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol51/iss7/5