Opinion of the Court
Federal law imposed other duties on state courts unrelated to immigration and naturalization. The Judiciary Act of 1789, which authorized “any justice of the peace, or other magistrate of any of the United States” to arrest and imprison federal offenders, required the judge to set bail at the defendant’s request. §33, 1 Stat. 91. Congress also required state courts to administer oaths to prisoners, to issue certificates authorizing the apprehension of fugitives, and to collect proof of the claims of Canadian refugees who had aided the United States in the Revolutionary War. Act of May 5, 1792, ch. 29, §2, 1 Stat. 266 (“any person imprisoned … may have the oath or affirmation herein after expressed administered to him by any judge of the United States, or of the general or supreme court of law of the state in which the debtor is imprisoned”); Act of Feb. 12, 1793, ch. 7, §1, 1 Stat. 302 (“governor or chief magistrate of the state or territory” shall “certif[y] as authentic” an indictment or affidavit charging a “fugitive from justice”); Act of Apr. 7, 1798,
- ↑ Printz noted uncertainty about whether the naturalization laws applied only to States that voluntarily “authorized their courts to conduct naturalization proceedings.” 521 U. S., at 905–906. But on their face, these statutes did not require state consent. See Act of Mar. 26, 1790, ch. 3, §1, 1 Stat. 103 (providing that an alien could apply for citizenship “to any common law court of record, in any one of the states wherein he shall have resided for the term of one year at least”); Act of Apr. 14, 1802, ch. 28, 2 Stat. 153 (referring to “the supreme, superior, district or circuit court of some one of the states, or of the territorial districts of the United States, or a circuit or district court of the United States”). And as Printz recognized, this Court has never held that consent is required. 521 U. S., at 905–906; see Holmgren v. United States, 217 U. S. 509, 517 (1910) (holding that Congress could empower state courts to conduct naturalization proceedings, but because California had already authorized jurisdiction, reserving the question whether its consent was necessary); but see United States v. Jones, 109 U. S. 513, 520 (1883) (stating in dicta that the naturalization laws “could not be enforced” in state court “against the consent of the States”). In any event, while the naturalization laws are certainly not conclusive evidence, they are nonetheless relevant to discerning historical practice.
