Miller v. Albright | |
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Argued November 4, 1997 Decided April 22, 1998 | |
Full case name | Lorelyn Penero Miller v. Madeleine K. Albright, Secretary of State |
Citations | 523 U.S. 420 (more) 118 S. Ct. 1428; 140 L. Ed. 2d 575 |
Case history | |
Prior | Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; 96 F.3d 1467 (D.C. Cir. 1996) |
Holding | |
A law providing narrower standards for United States citizenship for a child born abroad out of wedlock to an American father, as opposed to an American mother, was justified by important government interests and did not violate the equal protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment. | |
Court membership | |
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Case opinions | |
Plurality | Stevens, joined by Rehnquist |
Concurrence | O'Connor (in judgment), joined by Kennedy |
Concurrence | Scalia (in judgment), joined by Thomas |
Dissent | Ginsburg, joined by Souter, Breyer |
Dissent | Breyer, joined by Souter, Ginsburg |
Laws applied | |
U.S. Const. amend. V |
Miller v. Albright, 523 U.S. 420 (1998), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld the validity of laws relating to U.S. citizenship at birth for children born outside the United States, out of wedlock, to an American parent. The Court declined to overturn a more restrictive citizenship requirement applying to an illegitimate foreign-born child of an American father, as opposed to a child born to an American mother under similar circumstances.