The City of Seattle enacted an ordinance establishing a licensing regime for pawnbrokers and limiting such licenses to citizens of the United States. Asakura, a subject of Japan and a resident alien living in Seattle, had engaged in the pawnbroking business and sought to continue doing so. Because he was not a U.S. citizen, he could not obtain a license under the ordinance and was convicted for operating without one. Asakura challenged the ordinance on the ground that it conflicted with the 1911 Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between the United States and Japan, which guaranteed Japanese subjects the liberty to carry on trade in the United States upon the same terms as native citizens, subject only to generally applicable police and public security laws. The Washington courts upheld the ordinance and Asakura's conviction. The U.S. Supreme Court granted review.
Does a municipal ordinance restricting pawnbroker licenses to U.S. citizens conflict with and therefore become invalid under the Supremacy Clause in light of the 1911 U.S.-Japan Treaty guaranteeing Japanese subjects the liberty to carry on trade on the same terms as U.S. citizens?
Under the Supremacy Clause, treaties made under the authority of the United States are the supreme law of the land and supersede conflicting state and local enactments. Self-executing treaty provisions that secure rights to nationals of a treaty partner are judicially enforceable by those individuals. While states and municipalities may exercise their police powers to regulate for public safety, such regulations must apply evenhandedly and cannot discriminate against treaty-protected foreign nationals in a manner that conflicts with treaty-guaranteed equality in carrying on trade.
Yes. The Seattle ordinance's citizenship requirement for pawnbroker licenses conflicts with the 1911 U.S.-Japan Treaty and is therefore invalid under the Supremacy Clause. The treaty's guarantee that Japanese subjects may carry on trade upon the same terms as U.S. citizens encompasses the business of pawnbroking, and the ordinance's discriminatory restriction cannot be justified as a permissible police regulation.
The Court began by reaffirming that treaties are on par with federal statutes as the supreme law of the land and that local ordinances cannot nullify treaty obligations. The 1911 Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between the United States and Japan provides that the citizens or subjects of each nation shall have liberty to enter, travel, reside, and carry on trade, wholesale and retail, and generally to do anything incident to or necessary for trade upon the same terms as native citizens, subject to laws relating to police and public security that apply alike to natives and foreigners. The Court treated the treaty as self-executing and thus enforceable by Asakura without need of further legislative implementation. Turning to the scope of the treaty's protection, the Court interpreted the term "trade" broadly, relying on ordinary meaning and commercial usage. Pawnbroking, a recognized commercial occupation involving buying, lending on, and selling personal property for profit, fell comfortably within the ambit of trade. Therefore, the treaty entitled Japanese nationals like Asakura to carry on that business on equal terms with U.S. citizens. The City argued that its citizenship restriction was a valid exercise of police power designed to protect the public from abuses in the pawnbroking industry. The Court rejected that defense because the treaty's police-power proviso allowed only regulations that apply equally to natives and foreigners; the Seattle ordinance drew a line at citizenship and was discriminatory on its face. The city remained free to impose nondiscriminatory licensing standards—such as those addressing character, record-keeping, rates, identification, and other legitimate safety measures—but it could not exclude alien friends protected by treaty from the occupation altogether. Because the ordinance conflicted with the treaty's equality guarantee, it was void and could not support Asakura's conviction.
Asakura is a leading example of treaty preemption. It confirms that self-executing treaties confer judicially enforceable rights on individuals and that local laws yielding unequal treatment to treaty-protected foreign nationals are invalid. The case also illustrates broad, functional interpretation of treaty terms ("trade") and cabins the police-power exception to nondiscriminatory, generally applicable regulations. For law students, it is essential for understanding the Supremacy Clause's operation with international agreements, the doctrine of self-executing treaties, and the limits of state and municipal authority when international commitments are at stake.
Asakura v. City of Seattle underscores that international commitments made by the United States bind states and municipalities no less than federal actors. By giving operative effect to the U.S.-Japan treaty's guarantee of equal terms in trade, the Court reaffirmed that treaties are supreme law and that local regulations cannot deprive treaty-protected individuals of rights plainly secured by those agreements.