470
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
ferential treatment of men and women. See J. E. B. v. Alabama ex rel. T. B., 511 U. S. 127, 152 (1994) (Kennedy, J., concurring in judgment) (noting that prevailing case law "reveal[s] a strong presumption that gender classifications are invalid").
One can demur to the Government's observation that more United States citizen mothers of children born abroad out of wedlock actually raise their children than do United States citizen fathers of such children. As Justice Breyer has elucidated, this observation does not justify distinctions between male and female United States citizens who take responsibility, or avoid responsibility, for raising their children. Nor does it justify reliance on gender distinctions when the alleged purpose—assuring close ties to the United States— can be achieved without reference to gender. As Judge Wald commented in discussing an analogous claim when this case was before the Court of Appeals,
"Congress is free to promote close family ties by ensuring that citizenship is conferred only on children who have at least minimal contact with citizen parents during their early and formative years. . . . But this putative interest provides absolutely no basis for requiring fathers, and only fathers, to formally declare parentage and agree to provide financial support before a child reaches age 18." Miller v. Christopher, 96 F. 3d 1467, 1476 (CADC 1996) (opinion concurring in judgment).
* * *
In 1934, it was no doubt true that many female United States citizens who gave birth abroad had married foreigners and moved to their husbands' country, and that the children of such marriages were brought up as natives of a foreign land. And if a female United States citizen were married to a United States citizen, her children born abroad could obtain United States citizenship through their father. Thus, the historic restriction of citizenship to children born abroad
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