In the 1880s, the city's Board of Supervisors passed ordinances requiring permits to operate laundries in wooden buildings. On paper, it looked race-neutral. In practice, virtually every Chinese-owned laundry was denied a permit while white-owned operations in identical buildings sailed through. It was discrimination laundered through bureaucracy — pun intended — and it's a pattern that should feel uncomfortably familiar to anyone watching how local governments wield regulatory power today.

The resulting 1886 Supreme Court case, Yick Wo v. Hopkins, established a principle that still reverberates through American law: a law that is fair on its face but administered with "an evil eye and an unequal hand" violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It was one of the first times the court recognized that discriminatory enforcement of a neutral law is just as unconstitutional as a discriminatory law itself.

This ruling didn't arrive at the finish line of equality — not even close. It preceded decades of exclusion acts, internment, and voting rights struggles that stretched well into the 20th century. History, as the saying goes, is a marathon with many starts and stops along a winding path.

But here's why this anniversary matters beyond the history books: the principle at the heart of Yick Wo is a deeply libertarian one. Government power, even when cloaked in procedural neutrality, can be wielded as a weapon against individuals. The remedy isn't more government — it's accountability, transparency, and a legal system willing to call out selective enforcement when it sees it.

San Francisco loves to congratulate itself on its progressive bona fides. Fair enough. But let's also be honest: this city was the defendant in Yick Wo. The civil rights victory happened despite San Francisco's government, not because of it. Chinese laundry owners had to fight city hall — literally — to secure basic equal treatment.

That's a lesson worth remembering, especially in a city where permitting, zoning, and regulatory discretion still determine who gets to operate a business and who doesn't. The faces and industries change. The bureaucratic impulse to pick winners and losers? That part stays remarkably consistent.

Happy 140th, Yick Wo. Still relevant. Still necessary.