Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/493

 IN SB TIBUBCIO PAKROTT. 486 �process of law; nor deny to any person within iti iaiisdiO' tion the equal protection of the laws." �The civil rights bill provides that ail persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same rights in every state and territory to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the fuU and equal benefit of ail laws and proceedings for the seeurity of person and prop- erty as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, penalties, taxes, licenses, and exac- tions of every kind, and to no other. Eev. St. 1977. �Section 2164 provides that no tax or charge shall be im- posed or enforced by any state, upon any person immigrating thereto from a foreign country, which is not equally imposed and enforced upon every person immigrating thereto from a foreign country. �Article 5 of the Burlingame Treaty recognizes "the mutual advantage of the free immigration and emigration of the citi- zens and subjects" (of the United States and of the Emperor of China) "respectively, from the one country to the other for purposes of curiosity, or trade, or as permanent residents." �Article 6 provides that "reciprocally, Chinese subjects vis- iting or residing in the United States shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities, and exemptions in respect to travel, or residence, as may there be enjoyed by the citizens or sub- jects of the most favored nation." �It was not disputed by the attorney general of California that these provisions of the treaty are within the treaty-mak- ing power of the United States, nor that the law under which the petitioner bas been arrested, if in violation of those pro- visions, or those of the fourteenth amendment, or of the civil rights bill, is void, anything in the constitution of the state to the contrary notwithstanding. �But it is urged that the article of the constitution of this state which permits corporations to be formed under general laws, reserves the right to repeal, alter, or amend those laws at the discretion of the legislature ; that their repeal would at once put an end to the corporate existence of the corpora- tions, and that the right to put an end to their exi-stence in- ��� �