On September 27, 2025, Managing Attorney Vishal Chander participated in a powerful and educational reenactment of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases Ozawa v. United States and United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind as part of the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) Fall Conference, held at New York Law School.
The reenactment explored how racial eligibility for U.S. citizenship was legally constructed and challenged in the early 20th century—highlighting the racial exclusions embedded in U.S. naturalization law and the legal strategies used to both uphold and contest them.
Vishal Chander read the part of Bhagat Singh Thind, the Sikh immigrant and World War I veteran whose case tested the racial classification of “whiteness” under U.S. naturalization law. The Thind decision (1923) infamously held that even though Indians might be “Caucasian” under scientific classifications, they were not considered “white” under the “common man’s” understanding of race—and were therefore ineligible for naturalized citizenship.
The Ozawa/Thind reenactment was first developed by the Asian American Bar Association of New York and has since been performed nationwide to educate law students, attorneys, and community members on Asian American legal history and the role of the judiciary in defining race. The AABANY Fall Conference continues to be a vital space for professional development, community building, and critical reflection on law and justice.
