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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