Eric Lerner - How Can You, the Freeholders, Support the Oath to Defend the Constitution While Essex County Violates It by Holding Immigrants?

While the Supreme Court upheld the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the minority in the Supreme Court warned of its consequences. Judge Briar pointed out that the act violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The 14th Amendment states that all persons are afforded equal protection under the laws.

To deport people from the United States merely based on their place of birth violates the 14th Amendment. Justice Fuller in his dissent pointed out that no euphemism "can disguise the character of this act that deports people from this country. It contains the germs of an assertion of unlimited and arbitrary power incompatible with the principles of justice, inconsistent with the nature of the government, with the written Constitution by which the government was created."

Justice Field's dissent states "this deportation is a cruel and unusual punishment within the Articles of the Amendments of the Constitution. It is brutal and oppresive, the existence of the power stated is only consistent with a government of unlimited and despotic power. This punishment is beyond all reasonous severity."

Justice Field concluded by asking "If rights are deprived from people who are not citizens, where does the line end? Will it not end with the deprivation of people who are citizens."