There’s more reaction today on the Biden Administration’s urging of the Supreme Court not to take up the Fitisemanu citizenship case. KHJ News Washington DC correspondent Matt Kaye reports…
Advocates for birthright citizenship in American Samoa expressed disappointment that Biden Solicitor, General Elizabeth Prelogar, asked the Supreme Court not to take up Fitisemanu.
President and founder of Equally American, Neil Weare, called it “shocking the Biden-Harris Administration and the Solicitor General continue to breath life into the (precedent-setting) Insular Cases, grounded in a vision of white supremacy.”
The group’s petition says, those born in American Samoa are labeled “second-class by the US government…citizens of nowhere,” despite many serving in the military.
But the White House said that a Denver appeals court ruled correctly, last year.
The 10th Circuit found that Congress, not the courts, should make citizenship decisions about those born in the territories.
The White House brief to the High Court could mark a final victory for American Samoa and Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata, defending local self-determination and Fa’a Samoa.
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…that, despite conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch and liberal Sonia Sotomayor’s criticism of the Insular Cases that residents of some US territories are not entitled to birthright citizenship…
Gorsuch wrote, “the Insular Cases have no foundation in the Constitution and rests, instead, on racial stereotypes,” adding, “I hope the day comes soon when the Court squarely overrules them.”
But after years of litigation, Congresswoman Uifaatali Amata sees the Fitisemanu case finally coming to an end…
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The Fitisemanu plaintiffs agree with self-determination but argue “citizenship presents no threat” to that and will be filing their reply to the US and ASG in the coming weeks.
The Supreme Court will decide whether to take up the Fitisemanu appeal in October or November.
