The Ruling: On February 19, 1923, the Supreme Court decided that an Indian Sikh veteran named Bhagat Singh Thind [0.1] could not become a naturalized U.S. citizen.The "White Person" Standard: Federal law at the time only allowed "free white persons" and persons of African descent to naturalize. Thind argued he was an "Aryan" and therefore Caucasian, but the Court ruled that "white" meant what the common person understood it to be, excluding people from India despite scientific classifications.Terminology: Contemporary media frequently used the term "Hindu" as a catch-all descriptor for anyone from India, regardless of their actual religion (such as Sikhism or Islam).Aftermath: This ruling stripped citizenship from previously naturalized Indian Americans and barred further naturalization until the Luce-Celler Act overturned these restrictions in 1946.
