California Alien Land Law Unconstitutional

SAN FRANCISCO, Tuesday, May 2. A decision declaring unconstitutional that portion of the California alien land law forbidding aliens ineligible to citizenship to act as guardians of the agricultural lands of their American-born children was handed down by the State Supreme Court yesterday. The decision was in the case of Hayao Yano, a Sutter County Japanese, who sought such guardianship over the person and estate of his infant daughter.

The decision reversed a decision of the Sutter County Superior Court, which denied Yano's application for such guardianship. Yano appealed to the Supreme Court, attacking the constitutionality of the law.