Chung Fook v. White

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Chung Fook v. White
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 26, 1924 Decided April 7, 1924
Full case name: Chung Fook v. Edward White, Commissioner of Immigration for the Port of San Francisco Citations: 264 U.S. 443; 44 S.Ct. 361, 68 L.Ed. 781 Prior history: 287 F. 533 (9th Cir.), cert. granted, 262 U.S. 740 (1923).
Holding
Court membership
Chief Justice: William Howard Taft Associate Justices: Joseph McKenna, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Willis Van Devanter, James Clark McReynolds, Louis Brandeis, George Sutherland, Pierce Butler, Edward Terry Sanford
Case opinions
Majority by: Sutherland Joined by: Taft, McKenna, Holmes, Van Devanter, McReynolds, Brandeis, Butler, Sanford
Laws applied
Immigration Act of Feb. 5, 1917, ch. 29, § 22, 39 Stat. 891.

Chung Fook v. White, 264 U.S. 443 (1924), was a landmark Supreme Court case. It was significant in that it marked the end of the era of strict plain meaning interpretation of statutes and the beginning of the looser American Rule that the intent of the law was more important than its text.

A man did not have the automatic right to bring his wife to the United States if he married her after entering there; this is despite the exception's not being explicitly mentioned in the law.

[edit] External links

• Case at FindLaw.com