ABSTRACT
In four cases involving statutes of Washington and of California the Supreme Court of the United States has sustained the power of the states, under existing treaties with Japan, to prevent Japanese subjects from becoming lessees of agricultural land, from becoming stockholders in a corporation authorized to own agricultural land. The issue in each of these cases arose through a bill brought by a citizen and alien jointly to restrain state officers from threatening interference with the carrying out of proposed contracts. It is elementary that the treaty-making power of the national government may prescribe the privileges of aliens with respect to lands in the United States and that any state statute in conflict with a national treaty is inapplicable. If one incapable of citizenship may lease or own real estate, it is within the realm of possibility that every foot of land within the state might pass to the ownership or possession of non-citizens.
