Holy Trinity Church v. United States

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Holy Trinity Church v. United States

Supreme Court of the United States

Submitted January 7, 1892
Argued January 7, 1892
Decided February 29, 1892


Full case name:	Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States

Citations:	143 U.S. 457; 12 S. Ct. 511; 36 L. Ed. 226; 1892 U.S. LEXIS 2036

Prior history:	Error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York

Holding

The circuit court did err when it held that the contract hiring an English rector was within the prohibition of the statute which disallowed a "...person, company, partnership, or corporation, in any manner whatsoever to prepay the transportation, or in any way assist or encourage the importation or migration, of any alien or aliens, any foreigner or foreigners, into the United States ... under contract or agreement ... to perform labor or service of any kind in the United States...."

Court membership

Chief Justice: Melville Fuller
Associate Justices: Stephen Johnson Field, Joseph Philo Bradley, John Marshall Harlan, Horace Gray, Samuel Blatchford, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II, David Josiah Brewer, Henry Billings Brown

Case opinions

Majority by: Brewer
Joined by: unanimous

Laws applied

U.S. chap. 164, 23 St. p. 332

Holy Trinity Church v. United States, 143 U.S. 457 (1892)^[1], was a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States regarding a contract between The Church of the Holy Trinity, New York and an English preacher.

Contracts with aliens were forbidden by the U.S. Code, and specifically by "An act to prohibit the importation and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor in the United States, its territories, and the District of Columbia."

The court used the soft plain meaning rule to interpret the statute in this case. Its decision stated that "the circuit court did err when it held that the contract hiring an English rector was within the prohibition of the statute which disallowed a "...person, company, partnership, or corporation, in any manner whatsoever to prepay the transportation, or in any way assist or encourage the importation or migration, of any alien or aliens, any foreigner or foreigners, into the United States ... under contract or agreement ... to perform labor or service of any kind in the United States..."