CRANE
v.
PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
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New York state prosecuted contractor Crane under a labor law provision that prohibited employing non-citizens on public works projects, and Crane challenged the law as unconstitutional and in violation of international treaties with foreign nations. The Supreme Court affirmed Crane's conviction, holding that the law did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment or any applicable treaties, and that distinctions between aliens and citizens in public contracting were permissible classifications.
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Mr. Justice McKenna delivered the opinion ,of the court.
This case was argued and submitted with Heim v. McCall, ante, p. 175, just decided. It involves the criminal feature of § 14 of the Labor Law of the State which was the subject of the opinion in Heim v. McCall, ante, p. 175. It provided that a violation of the section should constitute-a misdemeanor and be punished by fine or imprisonment, or by both.
The case was commenced by information which accused Crane, plaintiff in error, while engaged as a contractor with'the city in the construction of a public work of such city, by virtue of a contract entered into with the city, of having employed three persons not then citizens of the United States..
The public work was the construction of catch or sewer . basins.
The defense was the uneonstitutionality of the law and that it was in violation of the treaties of the United States with foreign countries.
The treaties were put in evidence over the objection of the prosecuting officer and a motion was made to dismiss the information on the grounds above stated. The motion was denied, and plaintiff in error found guilty and sentenced to pay a fine of $50, or, in default thereof, to be committed to the City prison for the term of ten days. The case was then appealed to the Appellate Division of. the Supreme Court and there heard with Heim v. McCall, ante, p. 175.
The judgment was reversed. This , action was not sustained by the Court of Appeals. In that court and in the Appellate Division the cases were heard together and decided by the same opinions, they being rendered in the present case and the judgment of the trial court (Special Term) affirmed, 214 N. Y. 154.
It appeared from the testimony that one of the laborers employed was a subject of the King of Italy (the nationality of the others was not shown), and a treaty between the United States and that country, signed February 25, 1913, was received in evidence over the objection of the district attorney on the ground that “none of the parties to the proceeding is a-subject of the Kong of Italy.” Treaties with other countries were also received in evidence. To them the district attorney objected on the ground that none of the parties to the proceedings and “nobody who was connected in any way with-the subject-matter of the contract or employed in the. performance of the work” was “a subject or citizen of any of the countries referred to.”
. The provisions of the treaty with Italy are set out in the opinion in the Heim Case and the provisions of the other treaties are not, so far as their application is concerned, materially different.
The contentions of plaintiff in error are based on the treaties and on the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. The specifications of error are the same, though varying in expression, as those in the Heim Case, and there considered and declared untenable. There is added the view that a distinction made between aliens and citizens violates the principle of classification. We think this view is also without foundation.
Judgment affirmed.
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Cited By (14 total)
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Mercer v. Hemmings, 194 So. 2d 579 (Fla. 1966)…tion is reasonable within those limits. Smith v. State of Texas, supra; Burns Baking Co. v. Bryan, 264 U.S. 504, 44 S.Ct. 412, 68 L.Ed. 813, 32 A.L.R. 661; People v. Crane, 214 N.Y. 154, 108 N.E. 427, L.R.A.1916D, 550, Ann.Cas.1915B, 1254, affirmed, 239 U.S. 195, 36 S.Ct. 85, 86, 60 L.Ed. 218; Ives v. South Buffalo Railway Co. 201 N.Y. 271, 94 N. E. 431, 34 L.R.A., N.S., 162, Ann.Cas. 1912B, 156; * * * “ * * * Classification as between citizens and aliens is permissible, but the classification must have so…1 / 2
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Examining Bd. of Eng'rs v. Flores de Otero, 426 U.S. 572 (U.S. 1976)…39^40. That distinction, however, is no longer so sharp as it then was. Recently the Court has taken a more restrictive view of the powers of a State to discriminate against non-citizens with respect to public employment, compare Crane v. New York, 239 U. S. 195 (1915), aff’g People v. Crane, 214 N. Y. 154, 108 N. E. 427, and Heim v. McCall, 239 U. S. 175 (1915), with Sugarman v. Dougall, supra; and with respect to the distribution of public funds and the allocation of public resources, compare McCready v.…
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Sugarman v. Dougall, 413 U.S. 634 (U.S. 1973)…Lynham, 100 U. S. 483 (1880). This Court explicitly held that it was not a violation of the Equal Protection Clause for a State by statute to limit employment on public projects to citizens. Heim v. McCall, 239 U. S. 175 (1915); Crane v. New York, 239 U. S. 195 (1915). Even if the Court now considers that the justifications for those enactments are [*654] “not controlling,” those decisions clearly hold that the rational-basis test applies. To reject the methodological approach of these decisions, the Cour…1 / 3
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