Perkins v. Elg
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''Perkins v. Elg'', 307 U.S. 325 (1939), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that a child born in the
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to naturalized parents on U.S. soil is a natural born citizen and that the child's natural born citizenship is not lost if the child is taken to and raised in the country of the parents' origin, provided that upon attaining the
age of majority The age of majority is the threshold of legal adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when minors cease to be considered such and assume legal control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thus terminating the contr ...
, the child elects to retain U.S. citizenship "and to return to the United States to assume its duties."


Background

Marie Elizabeth Elg was born in the
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section of
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in 1907 to two
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
parents who had arrived in the United States some time prior to 1906; her father was naturalized in 1906. In 1911, her mother took the four-year-old to Sweden; her father went to Sweden in 1922, and in 1934 made a statement before an American
consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...
in Sweden that he had "voluntarily expatriated himself for the reason that he did not desire to retain the status of an American citizen and wished to preserve his allegiance to Sweden." In 1929, within eight months of attaining the
age of majority The age of majority is the threshold of legal adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when minors cease to be considered such and assume legal control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thus terminating the contr ...
, Marie Elg obtained an American passport through the American consul in Sweden, and returned to the United States. In 1935 she was notified by the
U.S. Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the United States federal executive departments, executive departments of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of fede ...
that she was an illegal alien and was threatened with
deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
. Elg sued to establish that she was a citizen of the United States and not subject to deportation. Frances Perkins was listed as the nominal
plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of t ...
in the case, being the Secretary of Labor during the administration of
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
, when the case was appealed to the Supreme Court.


Decision

Chief Justice Hughes wrote for the Court: * Elg became a citizen of the United States upon her birth in New York; the Civil Rights Act of 1866 had specifically addressed the issue of a child born in the United States to alien parents; * When a citizen of the United States who is a minor has parents who renounce their American citizenship, the minor does not lose his American citizenship as a result, "provided that, on attaining majority he elects to retain that citizenship and to return to the United States to assume its duties"; * Some provisions of the Naturalization Convention and Protocol of 1869 between the U.S. and Sweden, which provided for the loss of U.S. citizenship by any United States citizen who chose to "expatriate" — to become a naturalized citizen of another country, live there, and lose their United States citizenship — did not apply to minors, as the minor's move out of the United States was not to be considered a voluntary act; * The acquisition of "derivative Swedish citizenship" by a minor likewise does not force the minor to lose his American citizenship. The Court's first holding, that Elg was a citizen upon birth within the United States, was a reaffirmation of '' United States v. Wong Kim Ark'' (1898). The case was argued for the United States by Robert H. Jackson, who later became a Supreme Court justice. This was the only Supreme Court case that Jackson lost in his two years as Solicitor General. The case was called in 1960 a "landmark decision on expatriation".''Constitutional law: cases and materials, Volume 1'', Paul G. Kauper, 1960, p.669


See also

* '' Sweden v. Yamaguchi'': A court case involving Sweden and American-occupied Japan *
List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 307 This is a list of cases reported in volume 307 of '' United States Reports'', decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1939. Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of volume 307 U.S. The Supreme Court is established by ...


References


External links

*{{caselaw source , case=''Perkins v. Elg'', {{ussc, 307, 325, 1939, el=no , courtlistener =https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/103217/perkins-v-elg/ , findlaw = https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/307/325.html , googlescholar = https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17485095411337455454 , justia =https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/307/325/ , loc =http://cdn.loc.gov/service/ll/usrep/usrep307/usrep307325/usrep307325.pdf 1939 in United States case law United States immigration and naturalization case law United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Hughes Court Sweden–United States relations