Speech #900263377

This decision reversed Perez against Brownell. which upheld the constitutionality of section 401(e) of the Nationality Act of 1940. This section provided that a U.S. citizen loses his citizenship by voting in "a political election in a foreign state." I suggest a brief review of the facts of the case. The majority opinion relates that the appellant was born in Poland in 1893. emigrated to the United States in 1921 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1926. In 1950. he went to Israel and voted in an election for the Israeli Knesset. the national legislative body of Israel. in 1951. When he applied for renewal of his U.S. passport in 1960. it was denied on the grounds that he had lost his U.S. citizenship through the operation of section 401(e).