Schneider v. Rusk

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Supreme Court of the United States

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Prior history:	APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

Subsequent history:	None

Holding

Naturalized US citizens have the right to return to and reside in their native countries, and retain their US citizenships, even if they never return to the United States.

Court membership

Case opinions

Laws applied

U.S. Const.Fifth amend.

Schneider v. Rusk, 377 U.S. 163 (1964), was a United States Supreme Court case.

Angelika Schneider was born in Germany. She came to the US with her parents and became a United States citizen upon their naturalization at age 16. When she graduated from college, she moved back to Germany.

The State Department claimed Schneider had lost her US citizenship in accordance with a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act which revoked the citizenship of any naturalized citizen who returned to his or her country of birth and remained there for at least three years.

The Supreme Court held that since no provision of the law stripped natural-born Americans of their citizenship as a result of extended or permanent residence abroad, it was unconstitutionally discriminatory to apply such a rule only to naturalized citizens.