Weedin v. Chin Bow
Headline: Citizenship for children born abroad limited: Court ruled a father must have lived in the United States before a child’s birth for that child to claim U.S. citizenship, narrowing who qualifies.
Holding: The Court reversed the Ninth Circuit and held that, under section 1993, a child born abroad is a U.S. citizen only if the father had resided in the United States before the child’s birth.
- Limits citizenship for children born abroad unless father lived in U.S. before birth.
- Makes it harder for later-generation foreign-born descendants to claim U.S. citizenship.
- Requires proof that a father’s U.S. residence occurred before the child’s birth.
Summary
Background
A ten-year-old Chinese boy, Chin Bow, born in China in 1914, sought admission to the United States. His father, born in China in 1894, had not been in the United States until 1922. A board denied the boy admission because the father had not resided in the United States at the time of the boy’s birth. The Secretary of Labor ordered deportation. A federal district court granted habeas corpus and discharged the boy; the Ninth Circuit affirmed that discharge, and the Supreme Court agreed to review the legal issue.
Reasoning
The core question was whether the statute that declares certain foreign-born children citizens requires the father to have lived in the United States before the child’s birth or allows the father to establish residence later in life. The Court reviewed the history of early naturalization laws, prior cases, Attorney General and State Department opinions, and Congress’s 1907 law. The Court concluded citizenship under section 1993 is fixed at birth and that the proviso barring descent of citizenship to children whose fathers "never resided in the United States" must be satisfied as of the child’s birth. The Court therefore reversed the Ninth Circuit’s judgment.
Real world impact
The decision narrows who can claim U.S. citizenship through a father born or naturalized as a citizen: the father must have been resident in the United States before the child’s birth. The case was sent back to the lower court for proceedings consistent with this ruling.
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