The evening commute rush hour was starting to take shape on a recent late afternoon in San Francisco ’s SOMA district, at the corner of Third and Harrison streets.

Downtown office workers, wearing backpacks and headphones, wordlessly passed one another on their way to nearby train stations. Muni buses groaned and sighed as they pulled up to a bus stop near an unremarkable half-acre concrete parking lot.

“If you believe in civil rights, if you believe all Americans should have civil rights, it started right here,” said David Lei, pointing to the nearly full concrete parking lot that would soon begin emptying. He added: “And this was [the location of] the case that says noncitizens have rights as well … but we forgot. Most people have forgotten.”

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