Flores-Villar v. United States: Another Challenge to Gender Discrimination in the Nationality Laws

On November 10, 2010, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in a case (Flores-Villar v. United States), which ImmigrationProf peviously highlighted,  that raises a nagging issue that continues to arise.  The issue posed to the Court is whether the Court’s decision in Nguyen v. Immigration and Naturalization Service  (2001) permits gender discrimination that has no biological basis?   Children born outside the country who have one U.S.-citizen parent can obtain U.S. citizenship if the citizen parent had been physically present in the U.S. for a certain period of time before the child’s birth. If the citizen parent is the father, the period is five years; if it is the mother, the period is one year. Does this differentiation violate the Equal Protection Clause?  The Ninth Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Pamela Rymer (and joined by Judges Cynthia Holcomb Hall and Andrew Kleinfeld), held that it does not.

KJ