{"id":330458,"date":"2020-09-25T06:03:41","date_gmt":"2020-09-24T20:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=330458"},"modified":"2020-09-25T06:03:41","modified_gmt":"2020-09-24T20:03:41","slug":"10th-circuit-hears-argument-on-birthright-citizenship-in-us-territories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/10th-circuit-hears-argument-on-birthright-citizenship-in-us-territories\/","title":{"rendered":"10th Circuit hears argument on birthright citizenship in US territories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether people born in U.S. territories have a constitutional right to U.S. citizenship will depend on how the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit rules following argument yesterday in\u00a0Fitisemanu v. United States. Because of COVID-19, arguments in the case were done by video conference rather than in-person, with each of the judges and attorneys in the case participating via Zoom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I would have liked to be in the courtroom while the judges were considering whether or not I have a right to U.S. citizenship based on my birth on U.S. soil in American Samoa, I\u2019m glad I was able to at least listen in to the audio,\u201d said John Fitisemanu following the argument. \u201cAfter hearing the arguments, I\u2019m optimistic the court will recognize that I am a U.S. citizen, not simply a U.S. national\u2014it\u2019s time to bring an end to this second-class status.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Photo shows John Fitisemanu, who is one of the plaintiffs in Fitisemanu v. United States.
(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEach of the judges were engaged and interested in the case,\u201d said Matthew D. McGill, a partner at Gibson Dunn, who argued on behalf of the\u00a0Fitisemanu\u00a0plaintiffs before the 10th Circuit. \u201cUltimately, the Constitution is clear that if you are born on U.S. soil\u2014whether in state or territory\u2014you have a right to citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAddressing some of the points that came up at argument,\u00a0the historical record is clear that for nearly 60 years American Samoans pushed hard to be recognized as full U.S. citizens. And today, American Samoans are citizens of nowhere based on the federal government\u2019s unconstitutional denial of citizenship to people born in American Samoa,\u201d said Charles Ala\u2019ilima, a prominent American Samoa attorney who also represents the\u00a0Fitisemanu\u00a0plaintiffs. \u201cEqually important, recognition of citizenship would not have an impact on the preservation of American Samoan land and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was disappointing, but not surprising, to see the U.S. Department of Justice continue to rely on the racist\u00a0Insular Cases\u00a0to argue that people born in U.S. territories have no right to citizenship,\u201d said Neil Weare, co-counsel for the\u00a0Fitisemanu\u00a0plaintiffs and\u00a0president and founder of\u00a0Equally American, which advocates for equality and civil rights for the nearly 4 million Americans living in U.S. territories. \u201cAs the Supreme Court said in June, the\u00a0Insular Cases\u00a0should not be expanded, so I\u2019m hopeful the 10th Circuit will follow that command here and rule in our client\u2019s favor.\u201d<\/p>\n

However the 10th Circuit rules, the case is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Audio of the argument will be available at\u00a0https:\/\/www.ca10.uscourts.gov\/oralargument\/search\/recent.<\/p>\n

More information about\u00a0Fitisemanu v. United States\u00a0is available at\u00a0http:\/\/www.equalrightsnow.org\/fitisemanu.\u00a0(PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether people born in U.S. territories have a constitutional right to U.S. citizenship will depend…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":330459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[320],"class_list":["post-330458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330458","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=330458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}