Ho Ah Kow v. Nunan
United States Circuit Court for the District of California
12 F. Cas. 252 (No. 6546) (1879)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
The City of San Francisco (defendant) passed an ordinance requiring every man in county jail to have his hair cut to a length of one inch. Ho Ah Kow (plaintiff), a Chinese man and a prisoner in county jail, brought suit, claiming that the ordinance violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It was religious custom for Chinese men to shave the front of their scalp and wear the rest of their hair in a long braid called a queue. Ho Ah Kow presented evidence that the ordinance, while generally applicable by its terms, was enforced against only Chinese men. The city’s avowed purpose of the ordinance was to induce Chinese men into paying their fines to avoid being put in jail. In fact, the ordinance was colloquially known as the “Queue Ordinance.”
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Field, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 805,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
