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Constitutional Law Keyed to Levinson
Ho Ah Kow v. Nunan
Citation:
12 F. Cas. 252 (1879)Facts
Ho Ah Kow (Plaintiff) was a Chinese man and a prisoner in county jail. He filed suit against the City of San Francisco, represented by Nunan (Defendant), after the City passed an ordinance requiring every man in county jail to have his hair cut to a length of one inch. Plaintiff followed a 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. Plaintiff presented evidence that the ordinance, while generally applicable based on its plain language, was enforced against only Chinese men. He argued that the ordinance violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
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