Quong Wing v. Kirkendall

Background

A hand-laundry operator paid ten dollars under protest for a local license and sued to recover the money. The trial court favored the worker, but the state’s highest court reversed. The Montana statute required a license fee for all laundry businesses except steam laundries and said the fee would not apply where not more than two women were employed.

Reasoning

The central question was whether the law’s distinctions denied the worker equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. The majority, led by Justice Holmes, said a State may shape its revenue laws and favor certain industries if the distinctions are not unreasonable. The Court noted precedents and observed that the census showed many women worked in hand laundry. The opinion also mentioned, but rejected for lack of proper argument, a possible racial motive aimed at Chinese laundry workers and said courts will not investigate such questions sua sponte without counsel presenting the facts.

Real world impact

The ruling means Montana could continue to tax hand laundries while exempting steam laundries and small women-staffed operations. The individual worker’s recovery was denied and the state’s judgment was affirmed. The Court left open the possibility that a properly presented challenge — for example, showing racial targeting — might be considered in a future case.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice Lamar dissented, arguing the law was an arbitrary revenue measure that taxed small hand laundries and exempted larger steam ones and that classifying by the owner’s sex rather than business size was an improper and unreasonable basis for taxation.