LICE POWER - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

LICE POWERAuthored

The Law Mind • 797 words

Definition

"Lice power" does not appear to be a recognized legal term of art in American or common law jurisprudence. The fragment preserved in the available source material — a Bouvier's entry discussing congressional regulation of Chinese immigration and the "coolie" trade under the Act of March 3, 1875 — suggests this entry may be the result of a truncated or corrupted source reference. The underlying subject matter relates to the federal immigration power and Congress's authority to regulate the entry of foreign nationals, a well-established dimension of federal constitutional authority.

If the intended term is "LICENSE POWER" (a recognized concept in regulatory and constitutional law), see the Related Terms section below.

If the intended research subject is the federal power over immigration — including the legislative history surrounding the regulation of Chinese immigration in the late nineteenth century — the following guidance applies.

The federal immigration power is the constitutional authority of Congress to regulate the admission, exclusion, and removal of foreign nationals. It is treated as plenary, meaning courts have historically given Congress wide deference in this domain with limited judicial review. The power is not expressly enumerated in a single constitutional provision but has been derived from the naturalization clause (Art. I, § 8, cl. 4), the commerce clause, foreign affairs powers, and the inherent sovereignty of the national government.

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Why It Matters in Research

Researchers encountering this entry in Bouvier's should be aware of several navigational issues.

First, the source fragment is incomplete. The Bouvier's passage begins a discussion of the Act of March 3, 1875 (the Page Act) — one of the earliest federal statutes restricting immigration — but the entry as preserved is truncated. The Act prohibited the importation of women for "immoral purposes" and restricted the "coolie" labor trade. Researchers relying on Bouvier's for this subject should treat the available text as a starting point only and consult the Revised Statutes directly (§§ 2158–2164).

Second, nineteenth-century sources on immigration law reflect a legal and political environment now substantially repudiated. Bouvier's era sources may use terminology ("coolies," "orientals") that carried both colloquial and legal significance at the time, with the legal usage often tracking racially discriminatory classifications that were later held unconstitutional or superseded by statute.

Third, the doctrinal landscape shifted enormously between 1875 and the mid-twentieth century. The plenary power doctrine — under which courts deferred almost entirely to congressional and executive immigration decisions — was established in cases arising from the very legislative context Bouvier's describes. Researchers tracing the constitutional basis of immigration power should be alert to this doctrinal lineage.

Fourth, if the research need is the general police power (state authority to regulate health, safety, welfare, and morals), that is a distinct body of law with its own substantial literature. The two subjects — federal immigration authority and state police power — intersect when states attempt to regulate immigration-adjacent matters, but they are analytically separate.

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Historical Dictionary Support

Bouvier's Law Dictionary, in the fragment available, situates the subject under immigration legislation rather than under any freestanding doctrinal head called "lice power." This suggests the entry as indexed may reflect a digitization or transcription artifact rather than a discrete legal concept Bouvier intended to define independently. Bouvier's treatment of immigration in the late nineteenth century was contemporaneous with the major restrictive legislation of that era and reflects the assumptions of the time about congressional authority to exclude on racial and economic grounds.

No other shelf sources in the available corpus provide an entry under this precise term. The absence of corroborating entries across multiple historical dictionaries supports the conclusion that "lice power" is not a term with independent legal currency.

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Jurisdictional Note

Immigration power is exclusively federal in the United States. State laws touching on immigration-adjacent matters — employment verification, public benefits eligibility, housing — are subject to federal preemption analysis. This federal exclusivity is a consistent theme in both historical and modern sources.

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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Congressional Power — Enumerated Powers and the Necessary and Proper Clause (The Law Mind Constitutional Law Encyclopedia): Relevant for understanding the constitutional foundations of federal immigration authority, including the doctrinal relationship between enumerated powers and the implied plenary power over admission and exclusion of foreign nationals.

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LICE POWERmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

The immigration of the Chinese has been and continues to be the subject of important legislation. The act of congress of March 3, 1875, Rev. Stat. §§ 2158-2164, prohibits any vessels being built or registered in the United States for the purpose of procuring from any port the subjects of China, Japan, or any other oriental country, known as "coolies," to be transported to any foreign place, to be disposed of or sold as servants or apprentices; § 2158. Vessels so employed shall be forfeited; § 2159. Building, fitting out, or otherwise preparing or navigating vessels for such trade, is punishable by fine and imprisonment; §§ 2160, 2161. But this act does not interfere with voluntary immi- gration; §2162; and no tax shall be enforced by any state, upon any person immigrating thereto from a foreign country, which is not equally imposed upon every person im- migrating thereto, from any other foreign country; § 2164. The immigration of con- victs and women for purposes of prostitu- tion is also prohibited; Supplement to Rev. Stat. p. 181, §§ 3 & 5; 18 Stat. L. 477; 53 Fed. Rep. 1001; also alien laborers; 23 Stat. L. 332; and also all Chinese laborers, whether under contract or not; 25 Stat. L. 476, 504. The act which provides for the exclusion from admission of certain classes of aliens, and which makes the decision of the inspec- tors of immigration adverse to the right of any alien to land, final and conclusive un- less appeal is taken to the superintendent of immigration, is a constitutional exercise of the power of congress; 142 U. S. 651. The government of the United States, through the action of the legislative depart- ment, can exclude aliens from its territory, although no actual hostilities exist with the nation of which the aliens are subjects; 130 U. S. 581. See ALIEN; CHINESE; DE- PORTATION,