Washington, May 15.—The Supreme Court of the United States to-day attired the constitutionality of the Geary Exclusion and Registration Act. The decision was announced by Justice Gray, Justice Brewer dissenting.. The announcement that a decision in the case was expected drew w large attendance of spectators, and the fact that it, was the last day of the term accounted forthe presence of an unusually large array of attorneys within the bar, ineludiny Attorney-General, Olney, _Solicitor-CGeneral Aldrich, Messrs. Dolphs and Cockerell. ief trong und several members of the rps were antong the spectators Judge Gray in announcing the judgment said that the power of the nation to restrict or prohibit the immigration of any aliens into the country, or to requite such aliens already inthe country to remove there: from, was a well settled principle of international" law and was confirmed by an broken line of decisions in this court, The legislative power of the Government. had not transcended any of its constitutional limitations in the nct under consideration, It was within its power to determine the regulations wuder Which aliens should be permitted to remain in the United States, or failing to observe these regulations they should be required to leave the country. 1 provisions of section 6 of the act, the parts. of the law particularly at issue, were not inconsistent with the relations of judicial departments to The mode of procedure set section is similar to that in other well established proceedings, such as the habeas corpus and uaturalisation, fixing the requirements. of citizenship. and. the "i where the judicial branch of the Gove ment accepted the determination of the executive upon the question involved. As to the requirements that the Chinese entitled to remain in this country should establish that right by the evidence of credible white witnesses, Justice Gray said that it was within the power of the Legislature to determine the character of the evitlence that received in eases at Jaw, and what" force should be given to the testimony so offered. Not dise the wisdom or the justice question, which was beyond the provines of the judi the Government, it remained only to say that the judgment of the Circuit Court for the southern district of New York in refusing to grant a writ of habeas corpus to the several Petitioners was stated that it had been impossible time lapsing since the hearing of the argument upon the petitions to prepare in writing the opinions of the court, It would be finished soon is it was possible, At the conclusion of Justice Gray's statement Justice Brewer announced that he felt compelled to dissent from the view of the majority of the court. He read his views at some length, declaring in substance that the Act of 1803 was unconstitutional, that if it were upheld there was no guarantee that similar treatment might not be visited upon other classes of out population than the Chinese. Justice Field, who delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in the first case under the Exclusion Act, also read a dissenting opinion, He held that there was a
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.