On Monday morning, the Supreme Court might overrule its 125-year-old decision in In re Hong Yen Chang (1890) 84 Cal. 163, which denied a motion to admit Hong Yen Chang — a Columbia Law School graduate and a member of the New York State bar — to the California bar. Back then, the court declared void under federal law a naturalization certificate that had been issued to Chang by a New York court and held that, under California law, Chang could not be admitted to practice because he was “not a citizen of the United States, and [was] not eligible under the law to become such.” (See the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.)
We’ve noted that the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association at the University of California, Davis, has asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its earlier denial and posthumously admit Chang to the bar, and that the request has been supported by the State Senate and by one of Chang’s great nieces.
The opinion in In re Hong Yen Chang on Admission can be viewed Monday starting at 10:00 a.m.
