Speech #810171915

However. in all fairness. you should be reminded that good standing. which was essential to the enjoyment of certain privileges and benefits. required the exercise of the franchise in the Italian election. Another factor which must be considered is that dual citizenship exists in Italy. There is no provision in the Italian law that Italian citizens or their children who have lost their nationality by becoming naturalized in a foreign country automatically lose their Italian citizenship. According to the report. there is. moreover. no provision in the Italian statutes under which expatriated Italians must give notification of their changeofcitizenship status to the Italian Government. and. therefore. their names continue to appear on the list of voters. In examining this problem. the two departments of the Government having jurisdiction over this matterthe Departments of State and Justicehave found that the obligation to vote. as established by the Italian law. cannot in itself be considered as actual compulsion and that. therefore. coercion and duress could not be invoked by the parties concerned as sufficient reason to present the operation of section 401 (e) against their interests. The Department of State. accordingly. has refused consistently the the granting of American passports to these nativeborn or naturalized American citizens who have voted in either the Italian election or plebiscite. holding uniformly that the applicants have expatriated themselves under the terms of .the law. Technically their position is correct and is similar to that taken by the courts generally. for it is a well.settled presumption that each person knows the law. . This principle of law gives rise to difficulties.