California’s Century-Late Granting of a Law License

Hong Yen Chang isn’t a name that’s likely to ring a bell with many lawyers, which raises an interesting question: What purpose was served when the California Supreme Court earlier this year admitted Chang to the bar, almost 90 years after his death and 125 years after it first rejected his application on racial grounds?

The details of Chang’s life were in the news briefly after he was posthumously granted a law license in March. He arrived in the U.S. from China in 1872, a 13-year old sent on an educational mission. After attending and graduating from Philips Academy and Yale University, ...