454
Scalia, J., concurring in judgment
"(3) the father (unless deceased) has agreed in writing to provide financial support for the person until the person reaches the age of 18 years, and
"(4) while the person is under the age of 18 years— "(A) the person is legitimated under the law of the person's residence or domicile,
"(B) the father acknowledges paternity of the person in writing under oath, or
"(C) the paternity of the person is established by adjudication of a competent court."
By its plain language, § 1409(a) sets forth a precondition to the acquisition of citizenship under § 1401(g) by the illegitimate child of a citizen-father. Petitioner does not come into federal court claiming that she met that precondition, and that the State Department's conclusion to the contrary was factually in error. Rather, she acknowledges that she did not meet the last two requirements of that precondition, §§ 1409(a)(3) and (4). She nonetheless asks for a "declara-tory judgment that [she] is a citizen of the United States" and an order to the Secretary of State requiring the State Department to grant her application for citizenship, App. 11- 12, because the requirements she did not meet are not also imposed upon illegitimate children of citizen-mothers, and therefore violate the Equal Protection Clause.1 Even if we
1 Petitioner makes the equal protection claim on behalf of her father, not on her own behalf. Justice Breyer finds that she has third-party standing to make the claim because "[s]he has a 'close' and relevant relationship" with her father, and "there was 'some hindrance' to her father's asserting his own rights." Post, at 473 (quoting from Powers v. Ohio, 499 U. S. 400, 411 (1991)). As an original matter, I would agree with Justice O'Connor that this ground is inadequate, but I do not read our cases as demanding so significant an impairment of the rightholder's ability to sue as she does. For example, in Craig v. Boren, 429 U. S. 190, 197 (1976), although the rightholder who was one of the named plaintiffs had indeed lost his ability to sue because he had turned 21, there was "no barrier whatever" to assertion of the constitutional claim by other Oklahoma males between 18 and 20. Id., at 216 (Burger, C. J., dissenting). Certainly here, as in
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