Also known as: amissio civitatis · loss of citizenship
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
The loss of citizenship status. Under the Fourteenth Amendment, Congress may not impose such loss involuntarily without the citizen's consent, as when a statute automatically terminates citizenship for voting in a foreign election.
Charles Cunningham, a naturalized citizen, travels abroad and casts a single reluctant ballot in his birth country's local election after family urging. Upon return a federal officer declares his citizenship terminated under a statute treating the vote as automatic abandonment. Cunningham sues, and the court holds the statute unconstitutional because the vote alone supplies no proof of voluntary consent to relinquish citizenship.
Cynthia Cortez, a native-born citizen, is convicted of a serious felony and later registers to vote in a foreign election while on parole. A state official cites both the conviction and the vote as grounds for treating her citizenship as lost. The court rejects the claim, holding that neither event meets the constitutional requirement of voluntary consent to expatriation.
Cecilia Cabrera, a U.S. citizen facing civil commitment, argues that prior foreign voting should be treated as having already stripped her citizenship and therefore removed her from the proceeding's protections. The court refuses, ruling that the foreign vote cannot effect involuntary loss of citizenship and that she remains a citizen entitled to due-process safeguards.
No. The Fourteenth Amendment forbids Congress from treating foreign voting as an automatic expatriating act. Loss of citizenship requires the citizen's voluntary consent, and a statute that imposes loss based on the vote alone is unconstitutional.
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Yes. The Fourteenth Amendment protects citizenship acquired by birth or naturalization equally. Neither category of citizen may be divested of status without voluntary consent.
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Congress may identify acts that can serve as evidence of intent, but it may not make those acts conclusive proof of consent or automatic grounds for loss. The government must still demonstrate that the citizen actually chose to relinquish citizenship.
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…135. II The question is whether the statute is constitutional. We believe that it is not. The statute provides for the loss of citizenship by a native-born citizen. The Government argues that Congress has the power to provide for the loss of citizenship by any means that it chooses. We cannot agree. Citizenship is not a right…