Flores-Villar v. US

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Justice Kagan recusing herself, the Supreme Court, by a 4-4 vote, affirmed the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Flores-Villar v. United States.

The plaintiff, Flores-Villar, was born in Mexico to an U.S. citizen father and Mexican mother; the parents were not married. Current law provides that, in order for a child born overseas to obtain citizenship, the citizen mother be physically present in the US for one year, whereas citizen fathers are required to be physically present for five years. Flores-Villar challenged the law on equal protection grounds. The issue before the court: Does this differentiation amount to unconstitutional gender-based discrimination?

The Ninth Circuit ruled that the issue was resolved by the Supreme Court’s opinion in Nguyen v. INS, 533 U.S. 53 (2001), which held that the requirements for U.S. citizen fathers, but not for citizen mothers, did not violate the Equal Protection Clause. As a result of Kagan’s recusal, the Court affirmed the Ninth Circuit’s regressive ruling.

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