In June, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected claims brought by five passport-holding Americans born on U.S. soil in American Samoa to be recognized as citizens. In July, these so-called \u201cnon-citizen U.S. nationals,\u201d along with the Los Angeles-based Samoan Federation of America, petitioned the full D.C. Circuit for rehearing en banc. Yesterday, the Obama administration responded to the petition, continuing to argue that birthright citizenship for Americans born in overseas territories is a privilege to be extended or withheld by Congress, rather than a constitutional right guaranteed by the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment.<\/p>\n
According to the Obama administration\u2019s court filing, \u201cbirthright citizenship in an unincorporated territory is not a \u2018fundamental right.\u2019\u201d It embraced the panel\u2019s view that \u201c\u2018[f]undamental\u2019 has a distinct and narrow meaning in the context of territorial rights,\u201d which calls into question whether other constitutional rights recognized as \u201cfundamental\u201d might be denied in the territories. The Obama administration explained that its \u201cinterpretation of the Citizenship Clause flows directly from the Supreme Court\u2019s Insular Cases,\u201d a series of controversial decisions that have been criticized by First Circuit Judge Juan Torruella and others as creating a doctrine of \u201cseparate and unequal\u201d status for residents of U.S. territories. In the Obama administration\u2019s view, American Samoa\u2014a U.S. territory for more than 115 years, with a casualty rate in Iraq and Afghanistan more than seven times the national average\u2014is merely an \u201coutlying possession of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decorated veterans we represent who were born on U.S. soil in American Samoa have a hard time understanding how they can be a passport-holding Americans but not be recognized as citizens. The Framers of the 14th Amendment certainly understood its guarantee of birthright citizenship to apply throughout the country\u2014states, territories, and the District of Columbia alike,\u201d said civil rights attorney Neil Weare, who argued the case in February and is president of We the People Project, a non-profit that advocates for equal rights and representation in U.S. territories. \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing that the Obama administration continues to argue against a constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship in the territories\u2014home to more than 4 million Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n
People born in American Samoa are currently labeled with the inferior status of \u201cnon-citizen national,\u201d meaning that while they carry the responsibilities of citizenship (and a U.S. passport) they are not guaranteed the benefits and protections of citizenship. A recent mini-documentary examined the impact of this label on an American Samoan community based in Los Angeles, where these Americans are denied the right to vote and even access to certain jobs, even as they are expected to pay the same taxes as everyone else. To enjoy the same rights as other Americans, they are required to naturalize, which can cost around $700. The denial of the right to vote is not just an individual harm, but also dilutes the voting strength of American Samoan communities across the United States. HBO\u2019s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver also examined this injustice, criticizing any continued reliance on the Insular Cases, something that was cited in a recent decision by the Ninth Circuit.<\/p>\n
Three of the Tuaua plaintiffs are veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces, including one who received two Purple Hearts for his service in Vietnam. Another veteran plaintiff who lives in Hawaii is not only denied the right to vote, but is also denied the right to own a firearm because he is only recognized as a national, not a citizen. The third veteran served on the front lines during the Liberation of Kuwait, but could only sit and watch as those with whom he served voted in the 1992 presidential election. Another plaintiff lost her job in a government agency after it was discovered that her U.S. passport stated she was not a U.S. citizen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Notably, the Obama administration did not embrace concerns raised by the American Samoa government and cited by the panel that recognition of citizenship would have any impact on the preservation of land and culture in American Samoa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was at least pleased to see that the Obama administration did not repeat the unsupported claim that recognition of citizenship would have any negative impact on our people\u2019s land and culture,\u201d said attorney Charles Ala\u2019ilima, who also represents the plaintiffs. \u201cOur forefathers who transferred sovereignty to the United States in 1900 and 1904 and fought to be recognized as full U.S. citizens correctly understood that we could enjoy the benefits of citizenship while still protecting what makes us unique as a people.\u201d Also representing plaintiffs is Arnold & Porter, LLP.<\/p>\n
Previously filing as amicus curiae in support of the plaintiffs were a group of prominent citizenship scholars represented by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Members of Congress and former government officials from U.S. territories represented by Covington & Burling LLP, and David Cohen, an American Samoan who served as the highest ranking Pacific Islander in the George W. Bush administration, represented by Jenner & Block LLP. A group of prominent scholars of constitutional law and legal history, represented by Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, filed on behalf of neither party, but argued that the Insular Cases should not govern this case.<\/p>\n
It is expected that the D.C. Circuit will rule on the plaintiffs\u2019 petition for rehearing en banc in the next several months. If the petition is granted, a new round of briefing may follow. If the petition is denied, then plaintiffs will consider whether to appeal the panel\u2019s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. (We the People Project)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In June, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7069,4747,7070,312],"class_list":["post-210601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-admin-birthright","tag-american-samoan","tag-citizenship-clause","tag-obama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}