Passenger Cases

Smith v. Turner and Norris v. Boston, 48 U.S. (7 How.) 283 (1849), were two similar cases, argued together before the United States Supreme Court, which decided 5–4 that it is unconstitutional for states to impose a tax based on the number of incoming immigrants on board or disembarking from a ship. The cases are also known as the Passenger Case or the Passenger Cases.

The Court did not produce a majority opinion. Eight Justices authored separate opinions, and the respective stances on various issues did not always align with other Justices in their concurrences or dissents. The issues addressed in the various opinions included the following:

Whether the Commerce Clause exclusively commits the power to regulate foreign commerce, interstate commerce and commerce with the Indian tribes to the federal government and thus makes state regulation concerning foreign commerce an unconstitutional violation of the Commerce Clause, or whether the states were free to regulate until such regulation conflicted with a valid federal regulation or involved an area that could be regulated only on a uniform basis.

Whether regulation of migration of free individuals (as distinct from slaves) was included in the meaning of "commerce" covered by the Commerce Clause.

Whether states had an absolute right to determine who could enter its geographical domain that could not be compromised, even by ratification of a foreign treaty, by the federal government except with respect to federal officials, employees and agents, and foreign diplomats.

Whether the federal government had any constitutional authority to regulate immigration from foreign nations (as distinct from its acknowledged power to determine which immigrants could be naturalized).