State Ex Rel. Cartwright v. Hillcrest Investments, Ltd.

BARNES, Vice Chief Justice:

Alien ownership of land has, throughout our Anglo-Saxon legal history, been rigidly controlled.1 At common law, aliens could own land until their alienage had been established in a judicial proceeding. Once their alienage was established, the land es-cheated to the Crown.2 This common law rule was held to be part of American law in Fairfax’s Devisee v. Hunter’s Lessee, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 603, 3 L.Ed. 453 (1813). In Hauenstein v. Lynham, 100 U.S. 483, 25 L.Ed. 628 (1879), the United States Supreme Court held that the right to control *1255alien ownership of land resided…