It is customary for naturalizing courts, in denying petitions, to add some phrase governing a later renewal; such as “without prejudice to renewal”; or “with prejudice to renewal before the expiration of five years from the date of this order of denial.” In absence of such a phrase the court passing upon the second petition--especially if the former denial was on the ground of “immoral character”--requires the lapse of at least five years and exceedingly good proof of reform. The law requires that the petitioner must show affirmatively not only that during the whole period of five years immediately preceding the date of his petition he has behaved as a person of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution, etc., but that he _is_ at the time of the petition such a person. Courts have been known to deny petitions for acts committed before the beginning of the five-year period, on the ground that they involved ineradicable moral turpitude. Judges have shown much liberality on this point, however; there was a case of an old homesteader who had spent several years in the penitentiary; but the judge inquired far enough into the history of the matter to learn that the man was convicted as the result of a conspiracy on the part of certain neighbors who wished to get his homestead. The latitude of the courts in this respect is very wide, and interesting slants are to be found in the decisions. There was a saloonkeeper in Chicago who participated in the then general custom of keeping liquor saloons open on Sunday in violation of the law, the policy of the city administration at that time being that of non-enforcement. There came a time when public sentiment required enforcement of the Sunday-closing law, and thereupon this man promptly obeyed the orders of the police to that effect. When his petition for naturalization came up, it was held that the consent of the authorities to his disobedience of the law was no excuse; a person who would accept the benefit of an evasion of the law could not be of “good moral character.” Said the court: If a rule were laid down that it is immoral to knowingly and willfully violate the law in a community where public sentiment approves the law, but not immoral in a community where public sentiment does not approve the law, it would be most disastrous to the good order and well-being of society.... That public officers charged with enforcement of the law do not do so cannot change the effect upon the moral character of a man who willfully and habitually violates it.[82] This was a case in which the government succeeded in canceling a certificate already granted, and it shows, as do many others, what a severe gantlet the petitioner must run, and how his past is combed over before he can show that he is altogether qualified. Gerstein was required to wait before filing a second petition; the court said: