10:00 - 6:00
Opening Hours Mon. - Fri.
407.392.0209
Schedule a Consultation
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
  • Home
  • Our Team
  • Practice Areas
    • Citizenship/Naturalization
    • DACA & Other Exceptions
    • Deportation Defense
    • Family Petitions
    • Humanitarian Options & Asylum
    • Investor Visas
    • Marriage & Fiancee Visas
    • Visa Extensions
    • Student Visas
    • Waivers
    • Work Visas
    • LGBT Fiance Visa & Immigration
  • News & Resources
    • News & Updates
    • Immigration Resources
  • Our Clients
  • Contact
407.392.0209

SCOTUS strikes down citizenship law because of different treatment based on parent’s gender

July 21, 2017AsteraLawBlog

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down a law that makes it easier, in some cases, for children born overseas to an unwed U.S. citizen mother to acquire citizenship at birth than children born to an unwed U.S. citizen father.

The court ruled, in an opinion (PDF) by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that the law violates the equal protection clause. Ginsburg’s opinion was joined in full by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Justice Neil Gorsuch did not take part in the opinion.

The law concerns citizenship for children born abroad when one parent is a U.S. citizen and the other is not.

The law allows unwed U.S. citizen mothers to transmit their citizenship to children born abroad if the mother has lived in the United States for just one year before the child’s birth. A five-year U.S. presence, including two years after age 14, is required for U.S. citizen parents if the parent is married or the father is unwed (an easing of a previous 10-year requirement, with at least five years after age 14).

“We hold that the gender line Congress drew is incompatible with the requirement that the government accord to all persons ‘the equal protection of the laws,’” Ginsburg wrote.

Ginsburg said the court can’t rewrite the law, so Congress must select a physical-presence requirement that applies uniformly to all children born abroad when one parent is a U.S. citizen and the other is not, regardless of the parents’ marital status.

In the interim, she said, the government must ensure the laws are administered in a way that is free from gender-based discrimination. Because the one-year physical presence requirement was an exception to the general rule, the five-year requirement will apply, prospectively, to children born to unwed citizen mothers, Ginsburg said.

Leaving the requirement intact, for now, did not help Luis Ramón Morales-Santana, who had challenged the law. He is facing deportation after moving to the United States at age 13 and living here most of his life. His father, who was unwed when Morales-Santana was born, was 20 days short of satisfying the residency requirement that was then in effect.

Ginsburg said the statutes at issue “date from an era when the lawbooks of our nation were rife with overbroad generalizations about the way men and women are.” At the time the statutes were enacted, “two once habitual, but now untenable, assumptions pervaded our nation’s citizenship laws and underpinned judicial and administrative rulings: In marriage, husband is dominant, wife subordinate; unwed mother is the natural and sole guardian of a non-marital child.”

Prescribing one rule for mothers and another rule for fathers “is of the same genre as the classifications we declared unconstitutional” in prior cases, Ginsburg said.

The case is Sessions v. Morales-Santana.

Story corrected at 2:20 p.m. to state that Morales-Santana’s father didn’t satisfy the residency requirement then in effect.

Related Posts

Naturalization

March 11, 2017AsteraLaw

Visas de inversionistas y de negocios

February 26, 2017AsteraLaw

Non-immigrant Investor Visas

March 12, 2017AsteraLaw

Recent Posts

  • FAQ Fridays August 10, 2017
  • DHS Provides Relief to American Businesses in Danger of Suffering Irreparable Harm July 21, 2017
  • Employment Based Non-Immigrant Visas July 21, 2017
  • SCOTUS strikes down citizenship law because of different treatment based on parent’s gender July 21, 2017
  • DACA – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals March 15, 2017
  • Extensions of Stay/Status March 14, 2017
  • Family Petitions March 13, 2017
  • Non-immigrant Investor Visas March 12, 2017
  • Naturalization March 11, 2017
  • Student Visas February 27, 2017

Archives

  • August 2017 (1)
  • July 2017 (3)
  • March 2017 (5)
  • February 2017 (2)

Categories

  • Blog (4)
  • Resources (7)

Tags

asylum business citizenship deportation family FAQ Fridays H1B immigration investor social Sponsored strategies Student Video visas
ABOUT ASTERA LAW GROUP

At Astera Law Group, we focus exclusively on the practice of immigration law. We have a passion for guiding our clients through their immigration journey and we do it well.

Our connection with the immigration process is a personal one. All of our founding members are either immigrants or have a direct immigrant connection. Thus, our Slogan: by Immigrants, For Immigrants.

PRACTICE AREAS
  • Citizenship/Naturalization
  • DACA & Other Exceptions
  • Deportation Defense
  • Family Petitions
  • Humanitarian Options & Asylum
  • Investor Visas
  • Marriage & Fiancee Visas
  • Visa Extensions
  • Student Visas
  • Waivers
  • Work Visas
  • LGBT Fiance Visa & Immigration
CONTACT US
Office Address:
3361 Rouse Rd, Suite 130
Orlando, FL 32817
Phone: 407.392.0209
Email: info@asteralaw.com
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Avvo

© Copyright 2017. ASTERA LAW GROUP. All Rights Reserved. POWERED BY COMMETA