468
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
Immigration and Nationality Act, § 309, 66 Stat. 238-239. In 1986, however, Congress added further gender-based differentials. The Legislature that year permitted substitution of a written acknowledgment under oath or adjudication of paternity prior to age 18 in place of formal legitimation. To that extent, Congress eased access to citizenship by a child born abroad out of wedlock to a United States citizen father. At the same time, however, Congress imposed on such a child two further requirements: production of clear and convincing evidence of paternity, also a written statement from the father promising support until the child turned 18. The requirements for a child of a United States citizen mother remained the same; such a child obtained the mother's nationality if the mother had resided in the United States or its territorial possessions for at least a year before the child's birth. Act of Nov. 14, 1986, § 13, 100 Stat. 3657, codified as amended at 8 U. S. C. § 1409. No substantive change has been made since 1986 in the law governing citizenship of children born abroad out of wedlock.
II
The history of the treatment of children born abroad to United States citizen parents counsels skeptical examination of the Government's prime explanation for the gender line drawn by § 1409—the close connection of mother to child, in contrast to the distant or fleeting father-child link. Or, as Justice Stevens puts it, a mother's presence at birth, identification on the birth certificate, and likely "initial custody" of the child give her an "opportunity to develop a caring relationship with the child," ante, at 444, which Congress legitimately could assume a father lacks. For most of our Nation's past, Congress demonstrated no high regard or respect for the mother-child affiliation. It bears emphasis, too, that in 1934, when Congress allowed United States citiality Act of 1952, §§ 301(a)(7), 309(b), 66 Stat. 236, 238, codified as amended at 8 U. S. C. §§ 1401(g), 1409(b).
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