Courts treated Caucasian classification as outweighing skin color in early 1900s naturalization.

Evidence

The judge in Najour was not persuaded by the government’s emphasis on the applicant’s darker, walnut complexion as a basis for determining race. So long as the litigant is Caucasian, they qualified as “free white persons” within the definition of the naturalization laws. Furthermore, the court rejected the government’s attempts to disqualify Najour, a Christian Syrian, on account of “the fact that the applicant was born within the dominions of Turkey, and was heretofore a subject of the Sultan of Turkey.” — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 542