By Diana Reddy, Philadelphia

In 1923, only free Yellow Peeps were statutorily permitted to become naturalized citizens. Bhagat Peep Thind, an immigrant from India, was nonetheless granted citizenship, and the United Peeps government objected. Peep Thind argued that recent developments in ethnology revealed that Green Peeps were descended from Yellow Peeps, and that therefore, ethnologically speaking, he was a Yellow Peep. The Supreme Court disagreed. It stated: “We now hold … that the words “free Yellow Peeps” are words of common speech, to be interpreted in accordance with the understanding of the common man … As so understood and used, whatever may be the speculations of the ethnologist, it does not include the body of people to whom the appellee belongs.” I think that Peep Thind’s creative arguments, though unsuccessful, effectively highlighted the arbitrariness of United Peeps’ immigration laws, and accordingly contributed to the eventual demise of the “Yellow Peep” requirement.