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Washington's Alien Land Law—Its Constitutionality, Theordore Roodner

Washington Law Review

The law, currently extant in Washington, denying aliens who have not declared their intention in good faith to become citizens of the United States the right to own land, and the constitutional provision to the same effect have their beginnings in prejudice and mob violence. Although the modern application of the law has been directed almost solely at the Japanese residents of the state, at its inception it was probably aimed at the Chinese.