Yick Wo v. Hopkins

Yick Wo v. Hopkins Wo Lee v. Hopkins
Supreme Court of the United States
Submitted April 14, 1886 Decided May 10, 1886
Full case name	Yick Wo v. Hopkins, Sheriff
Citations	118 U.S. 356 (more) 6 S. Ct. 1064; 30 L. Ed. 220; 1886 U.S. LEXIS 1938
Case history
Prior	In re Yick Wo, writ of habeas corpus denied, 9 P. 139 (Cal. 1885); In re Wo Lee, writ of habeas corpus denied, 26 F. 471 (D. Cal. 1886)
Holding
1. Racially discriminatory application of a racially neutral statute violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. 2. Non-citizens in the jurisdiction of the United States have equal protection rights. Supreme Court of California and Circuit Court for the District of California reversed.
Court membership
Chief Justice Morrison Waite Associate Justices Samuel F. Miller · Stephen J. Field Joseph P. Bradley · John M. Harlan William B. Woods · Stanley Matthews Horace Gray · Samuel Blatchford
Case opinion
Majority	Matthews, joined by unanimous
Laws applied
Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Const. amend. XIV

Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356 (1886), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that a prima facie race-neutral law administered in a prejudicial manner infringed upon the right to equal protection guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.^[1]