Beyond Judicial Intent: The Agency of the Defense Counsel in Ozawa’s and Thind’s Supreme Court Cases
Department
History
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Abstract
This thesis seeks to examine how specific legal strategies by the defense counsel in Ozawa v. United States, 260 U.S. 178 (1922), and United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, 261 U.S. 204 (1923), compelled the Supreme Court of the United States into a reactive and contradictory position. A re-examination of Ozawa and Thind delves deeper into the legal briefs and arguments made by Takao Ozawa and Bhagat Singh Thind, alongside their legal teams. These briefs, opinions of the court, past lower court cases, and personal statements by Ozawa and Thind demonstrate how they did not surrender to the confines of a predetermined legal outcome under the Supreme Court. Historical, legal, and social scholars commonly support Critical Race Theory (CRT) perspectives, where the agency of these litigants received little attention due to being overlooked within the Courts decisions that aligned with CRT.
This research attempts to address this historiographical gap and provide nuance, drawing on and the intersections of social, legal, and immigration history, including the development of racial ethnology and the eugenics movement in the United States over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The opening chapters employ a macro-social perspective on the intersection of racial ethnology, eugenics, and United States law, focusing on the individual biases of the key Supreme Court Justices who ruled in Ozawa and Thind. The final two chapters adopt a micro perspective to analyze the individual legal arguments made before the Court by Ozawa, Thind, and their legal teams. Through an analysis of these arguments, individual litigant agency becomes visible as it intersects with the Court’s reaction and eventual break from precedent or stare decisis.
Keywords
Naturalization, Racial Ethnology, Supreme Court, Ozawa, Thind
Advisor
Dr. Kimberly Perez
Date of Award
Spring 2026
Document Type
Thesis
Recommended Citation
Luchs, Bret K., "Beyond Judicial Intent: The Agency of the Defense Counsel in Ozawa’s and Thind’s Supreme Court Cases" (2026). Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice. 3321.
DOI: 10.58809/TCES5106
Available at:
https://scholars.fhsu.edu/theses/3321
Rights
© The Author
Included in
Asian American Studies Commons, Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons, Immigration Law Commons, Law and Race Commons, Law and Society Commons, Legal Commons, Legal History Commons, Political History Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Supreme Court of the United States Commons, United States History Commons
