McDonald v. United States

Background

A British subject born in Nova Scotia entered the United States in 1920 and lived near Boston with his wife and child. He worked continuously as a master of a British-registered vessel for the United Fruit Company that sailed between Boston and Central America. He filed a declaration of intent in 1921 and a petition for naturalization in 1926. A district court denied his petition and the court of appeals affirmed. The dispute centers on whether time spent serving on a foreign-registered ship counts as “residence” for naturalization under the 1906 law as amended in 1918.

Reasoning

The Court examined a proviso added by the 1918 amendment stating that service on vessels not of American registry “shall not be considered as residence” for naturalization. The petitioner relied on older decisions that allowed sailors domiciled in the United States to count absences at sea toward residence. The Court concluded the proviso must be given its plain, general meaning. It rejected a narrower reading that would limit the proviso to special classes created by the amendment, because that would render the proviso ineffective. The Court therefore held that service on foreign-flag vessels does not count as residence for the statutory residency requirement.

Real world impact

Because the Court read the proviso broadly, aliens who work on ships registered in other countries cannot count that sea service as residence when applying for naturalization under the statute at issue. The decision means the petitioner could not meet the five-year residence requirement and his naturalization was denied and affirmed on appeal.