Cite as: 523 U. S. 420 (1998)
O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment
bers of either sex. The biological differences between single men and single women provide a relevant basis for differing rules governing their ability to confer citizenship on children born in foreign lands. Indeed, it is the suggestion that simply because Congress has authorized citizenship at birth for children born abroad to unmarried mothers, it cannot impose any postbirth conditions upon the granting of citizenship to the foreign-born children of citizen fathers, that might be characterized as merely a byproduct of the strong presumption that gender-based legal distinctions are suspect. An impartial analysis of the relevant differences between citizen mothers and citizen fathers plainly rebuts that presumption.26
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is affirmed.
It is so ordered.
Justice O'Connor, with whom Justice Kennedy joins, concurring in the judgment.
This Court has long applied a presumption against third-party standing as a prudential limitation on the exercise of federal jurisdiction. Federal courts, we have held, "must hesitate before resolving a controversy, even one within their constitutional power to resolve, on the basis of the rights of third persons not parties to the litigation." Singleton v. Wulff, 428 U. S. 106, 113 (1976); see also Warth v. Seldin, 422 U. S. 490, 499 (1975). Contrary to this prudential rule, the principal opinion recognizes that petitioner has standing to raise an equal protection challenge to 8 U. S. C. § 1409. The statute, however, accords differential treatment to fathers and mothers, not to sons and daughters. Thus,
26 See Michael M. v. Superior Court, Sonoma Cty., 450 U. S. 464, 497- 498, n. 4 (1981) (Stevens, J., dissenting). Justice Scalia argues that petitioner's suit must be dismissed because the courts have "no power to provide the relief requested." Post, at 453. Because we conclude that there is no constitutional violation to remedy, we express no opinion on this question.
445
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