Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Forgotten History: Supreme Court Rules "Get married and Lose Your Citizenship"


December 6, 1915, On this day the Supreme court handed down one of their worst rulings and upheld part of the Expatriation Act of 1907 which stripped women of their citizenship if they married non-citizens of the U.S.

The 1907 act read in part that, “Any American woman who marries a foreigner shall take the nationality of her husband.” There was language in the act that said a woman could get her citizenship back if the marriage was terminated, however, there were limitations in this regarding reporting the American counsel if in their husband’s nation. However, American men who married foreign women were permitted to keep their citizenship.

In Mackenzie v. Hare the plaintiff Ethel Mackenzie sued the Election Board of San Francisco and the State of California after she was barred from voting under the grounds, she had voluntarily given up her citizenship (In California at the time women had the right to vote)

The court ruled that the status of marriage is an older and more important one than U.S., citizenship and so there was nothing unconstitutional about the Expatriation Act. It was added in the judgment that these were consequences women went into a marriage knowing so the woman found it acceptable.

This Expatriation Act remained in effect this way until 1922 when it was revised, the revision was only for women marrying European husbands, and extreme rules regarding the citizenship of Asians remained in effect until the reformation of immigration law in the 1960s. In 2014 the U.S., Senate passed a resolution apologizing to women who gave up their citizenship. 


Sources:

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/239/299/

https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/260mackenzie-hare.html

https://immigrationhistory.org/item/an-act-in-reference-to-the-expatriation-of-citizens-and-their-protection-abroad/

 

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