Abstract
Provoked by the ugliness of Proposition 187 – California’s recent anti-immigration initiative – the ghosts of at least three fully documented Americans could be excused for returning briefly to say “I told you so.” One is James Madison, who famously warned against forms of democracy that fail to check popular prejudices and resentments. A second is Fred Allen,who somewhat less famously dismissed California as “a wonderful place to live – if you happen to be an orange.” The third is James Bradley Thayer, the least familiar of the three today, but arguably the most influential law professor in American history. His grounds for claiming vindication are the subject of this essay.