Passenger Cases - Decision of The Court

Decision of The Court

In each case the United States Supreme Court held, by a closely divided 5:4 majority, a part, but not the whole, of the respective State statute to be unconstitutional. A federal constitutional principle known as "standing" precludes the giving of an advisory opinion, i.e., a pronouncement of a decision concerning a matter which goes beyond the facts and record of the particular case. Thus, parts of the respective statutes not implicated by the specific facts of the case are not supposed to be ruled upon until a case involving a contest over such matters is actually presented to the court.

In Smith vs. Turner that portion of the New York statute concerning the collection of a tax measured by the number of steerage-class passengers from ships arriving from a foreign port was declared unconstitutional.

In Norris vs. City of Boston that portion of the Massachusetts law imposing a tax measured by the number of alien passengers allowed to disembark without bond was struck down as unconstitutional.