Can the United States by Treaty Confer on Japanese Residents in California the Right to Attend the Public Schools? (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Can the United States by Treaty Confer on Japanese Residents in California the Right to Attend the Public Schools? This question may be affected by the location of and accommodation in the separate Mongolian school of San Francisco, We understand that there is but one Mongolian public school in the city. If it should be decided that, within the meaning of the Treaty, a right to attend a public school is a right of residence, and that the action of the San Francisco School Board is a denial of "the same privileges, liberties and rights" in respect to public school education which are granted to other residents, the question would remain, whether the act of the San Francisco authorities could be justified under the clause which excepts "laws, ordinances and regulations with regard to police and public security." It appears to the writer that the main questions relating to the proper interpretation of the Treaty are the first two as stated. Should the courts decide that the action of the School Board did violate the true intent and meaning of the Treaty, they would be confronted with the further question: Is the Treaty constitutional? If the treaty-making power of the Federal Government is limited, and if this Treaty in conferring on Japanese residents in the United States the right to attend the public schools of a State exceeds those limits, the Treaty in this respect is unconstitutional, and no more the supreme law of the land than an unconstitutional act of Congress. The question, "Can a Treaty override the Constitution?" is to-day as absurd as the question, "Can an Act of Congress override the Constitution?" The treaty-making power, as the legislative power, must be exercised within those limits, if any, imposed by the Constitution. The difficulty is to determine the extent of the treaty-making power. It is an unlimited power or is it limited power; and, if limited, what are the limitations? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.