The ''Head Money Cases'', 112 U.S. 580 (1884), also referred to as ''Edye v. Robertson'', were a group of cases decided together by the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
.
Background
Pursuant to the
Immigration Act of 1882, officers from the
customhouse in the
Port of New York began collecting a tax from ships of fifty cents for each immigrant aboard. Multiple ship owners sued because they were transporting Dutch immigrants, and the
Netherlands
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, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
had a treaty with the United States that seemed to prohibit the tax.
Decision
The case established the precedent that
treaties, which are described in the
Supremacy Clause
The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution of the United States ( Article VI, Clause 2) establishes that the Constitution, federal laws made pursuant to it, and treaties made under its authority, constitute the "supreme Law of the Land", and thu ...
of the
US Constitution as "the supreme law of the land" equal to any domestic federal law, do not hold a privileged position above other acts of Congress. Hence, other laws affecting the "enforcement, modification, or repeal" of treaties are legitimate.
See also
*
Passenger Cases: A similar case covering a head tax on British immigrants.
*
List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 112
This is a list of cases reported in volume 112 of ''United States Reports'', decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1884 and 1885.
Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of volume 112 U.S.
The Supreme Court is establi ...
External links
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1884 in United States case law
United States Supreme Court cases
United States Supreme Court cases of the Waite Court
United States Treaty Clause case law
Netherlands–United States relations
Ellis Island
United States immigration and naturalization case law
Poll taxes
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