Scotus Cases...........

There are "two sources of citizenship, and two only: birth and naturalization." United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U. S. 649, 702 (1898). Within the former category, the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution guarantees that every person "born in the United States, and subject to the *424 jurisdiction thereof, becomes at once a citizen of the United States, and needs no naturalization." 169 U. S., at 702.

Persons not born in the United States acquire citizenship by birth only as provided by Acts of Congress. Id., at 703
. http://www.ecases.us/case/scotus/118198/miller-v-albright

 

[Child] is a citizen, even though born abroad, if his father was a citizen, provided, however, that this privilege shall not exist unless the father was at some time a resident of the United States as well as a citizen, and provided also that such a child, who continues to reside abroad, shall, in order to receive the protection of this Government, be required upon reaching the age of eighteen years to record at an American consulate his intention to become a resident and remain a citizen of the United States, and shall be further required to take the oath of allegiance to the United States upon attaining his majority.
"But it [the first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment] has not touched the acquisition of citizenship by being born abroad of American parents; and has left that subject to be regulated, as it had always been, by Congress, in the exercise of the power conferred by the Constitution to establish an uniform rule of naturalization."  http://www.ecases.us/case/scotus/102188/morrison-v-california

 

 

The persons declared to be citizens are “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” The evident meaning of these last words is not merely subject in some respect or degree to the jurisdiction of the United States, but completely subject to their political jurisdiction and owing them direct and immediate allegiance. And the words relate to the time of birth in the one case, as they do to the time of naturalization in the other. Persons not thus subject to the jurisdiction of the United States at the time of birth cannot become so afterwards except by being naturalized, either individually, as by proceedings under the naturalization acts, or collectively, as by the force of a treaty by which foreign territory is acquired.  Elk v. Wilkins (1884), 112 U.S. 94,

 

 

"It does not probably occur to the American families who are visiting Europe in great numbers, and remaining there frequently for a year or more, that all their children born in a foreign country are aliens, and when they return home will return under all the disabilities of aliens. Yet this is indisputably the case, for it is not worthwhile to consider the only exception to this rule that exists under the laws of the United States, viz., the case of a child so born whose parents were citizens of the United States on or before the 14th day of April, 1802." https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/274/657/case.html

And the Court has specifically recognized the power of Congress not to grant a United States citizen the right to transmit citizenship by descent. As hereinabove noted, persons born abroad, even of United States citizen fathers who, however, acquired American citizenship after the effective date of the 1802 Act, were aliens.http://www.ecases.us/case/scotus/108307/rogers-v-bellei

Our National Legislature indulged the foreign-born child with presumptive citizenship, subject to subsequent satisfaction of a reasonable residence requirement, rather than to deny him citizenship outright, as concededly it had the power to do, and relegate the child, if he desired American citizenship, to the more arduous requirements of the usual naturalization process. http://www.ecases.us/case/scotus/108307/rogers-v-bellei

 

The Court has recognized the existence of this power. It has observed, "No alien has the slightest right to naturalization unless all statutory requirements are complied with . . . ." United States v. Ginsberg, 243 U. S. 472, 475 (1917). See United States v. Ness, 245 U. S. 319 (1917); Maney v. United States, 278 U. S. 17 (1928). http://www.ecases.us/case/scotus/108307/rogers-v-bellei

 

Petitioner's mother is a native-born citizen of the United States and his father is an Italian citizen who has never been naturalized. They were married in the United States, and their marital relationship has never been terminated. Petitioner was born in Italy in 1906, while his parents were residing there temporarily, and his mother brought him to the United States later in the same year. He has since resided continuously in the United States and has never been naturalized. Held: Petitioner is not a citizen of the United States. Pp. 309-315. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/366/308/case.html

 

 

Federal court cases

There are only two classes of citizens of the United States, native-born citizens and naturalized citizens;[1] and a citizen who did not acquire that status by birth in the United States is a naturalized citizen.[2]

[1] Elk v. Wilkins, 112 U.S. 94, 101, 102, 5 S.Ct. 41, 28 L.Ed. 643; United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649, 702, 18 S. Ct. 456, 42 L.Ed. 890; Johansen v. Staten Island Shipbuilding Co., 272 N.Y. 140, 5 N.E.2d 68, 70; Schaufus v. Attorney General of United States, D.C.Md., 45 F. Supp. 61, 67.

[2] United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U. S. 649, 702-703, 18 S.Ct. 456, 42 L.Ed. 890; Johansen v. Staten Island Shipbuilding Co., 272 N.Y. 140, 5 N.E.2d 68, 70; United States v. Kellar, C.C.Ill., 13 F. 82, 85; Schaufus v. Attorney General of United States, D.C.Md., 45 F.Supp. 61, 67.

https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=6104674007650033943&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr

 

 

State Cases

 

'The applicable law for transmitting citizenship to a child born abroad when one parent is a U.S. citizen is the statute that was in effect at the time of the child's birth.' ") (quoting Ablang v. Reno, 52 F.3d 801, 803 (9th Cir.1995)

.....naturalization and derivative grants of citizenship by birth are both conferred by statutes, and are at root both naturalization proceedings. See Miller v. Albright, 523 U.S. 420, ----, ----, 118 S.Ct. 1428, 1432, 1446, 140 L.Ed.2d 575 (1998) (plurality opinion); Wong Kam Wo v. Dulles, 236 F.2d 622, 625 (9th Cir.1956) ("Section 1993 is therefore a naturalization law in the constitutional sense.").
http://www.ecases.us/case/ca9/762811/99-cal-daily-op-serv-2242-99-cal-daily-op-serv-242