Perkins v. Elg

Perkins v. Elg
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 3, 1939 Decided May 29, 1939
Full case name	Perkins v. Elg
Citations	307 U.S. 325 (more) 59 S. Ct. 884; 83 L. Ed. 1320; 1939 U.S. LEXIS 514
Case history
Prior	99 F.2d 408 (D.C. Cir. 1938); cert. granted, 305 U.S. 591 (1938).
Holding
A child born in the United States to naturalized parents and raised abroad retains U.S. citizenship until the age of majority, and at that point continues to retain U.S. citizenship if he or she elects to retain it, and elects to return to the United States and assume the duties of a U.S. citizen.
Court membership
Chief Justice Charles E. Hughes Associate Justices James C. McReynolds · Pierce Butler Harlan F. Stone · Owen Roberts Hugo Black · Stanley F. Reed Felix Frankfurter · William O. Douglas
Case opinion
Majority	Hughes, joined by Butler, Stone, Roberts, Black, Reed, Frankfurter, McReynolds
Douglas took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
Civil Rights Act of 1866, Naturalization Convention and Protocol of 1869

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 United States 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 child elects to retain U.S. citizenship "and to return to the United States to assume its duties."^[1]