06/17/2017
In a decision issued just a few days ago the United States Supreme Court ruled that u***d fathers and u***d mothers may not be treated differently in determining whether their children may claim American citizenship. The case involved a Mr. Morales-Santana who was born in the Dominican Republic. His father was an American citizen. The law in effect at that time required his father to have lived in the US for 10 years, five of them after age 14, in order to transmit his American citizenship to his son. However, the father was a few days short of that standard. But if the father been an u***d mother, the law only required a one year period of residency to transmit citizenship. The court agreed that this was unconstitutional as a "violation of the equal protection of the laws". However, in an unexpected twist, the court's remedy was to have the same longer period be applied to the children of both mothers and fathers. Mr. Morales-Santana will now be subject to deportation proceedings. The case is Sessions v. Morales-Santana.
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