Cite as: 523 U. S. 420 (1998)
Breyer, J., dissenting
of United States citizen fathers may not have affected many women. But, in the words of one woman who testified in favor of the 1934 Act (and later became the first woman to sit as a federal district court judge), "[w]hether there are a lot of people who suffer or whether there are a few who suffer, it seems to us that the principle of equal application of the law to men and women ought to receive recognition." Hearings on H. R. 3673 and H. R. 77 before the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, 73d Cong., 1st Sess., 36 (1933) (testimony of Burnita Shelton Matthews). Congress recognized this equality principle in 1934, and is positioned to restore that impartiality before the century is out.
Justice Breyer, with whom Justice Souter and Justice Ginsburg join, dissenting.
Since the founding of our Nation, American statutory law, reflecting a long-established legal tradition, has provided for the transmission of American citizenship from parent to child—even when the child is born abroad. Today's case focuses upon statutes that make those children, when born out of wedlock, "citizens of the United States at birth." 8 U. S. C. §§ 1401 and 1409. The statutes, as applied where only one parent is American, require the American parent— whether father or mother—to prove the child is his or hers and to meet a residency requirement. The statutes go on to require (1) that the American parent promise to provide financial support for the child until the child is 18, and (2) that the American parent (or a court) legitimate or formally acknowledge the child before the child turns 18—if and only if the American parent is the father, but not if the parent is the mother.
What sense does it make to apply these latter two conditions only to fathers and not to mothers in today's world— where paternity can readily be proved and where women and men both are likely to earn a living in the workplace? As
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