84
O'Connor, J., dissenting
everyday ties that provide a connection between child and citizen parent and, in turn, the United States." Ante, at 64-65. The Court again fails to demonstrate that this was Congress' actual purpose in enacting § 1409(a)(4). The majority's focus on "some demonstrated opportunity or potential to develop . . . real, everyday ties" in fact appears to be the type of hypothesized rationale that is insufficient under heightened scrutiny. See supra, at 75-77.
The INS asserts the governmental interest of "ensuring that children who are born abroad out of wedlock have, during their minority, attained a sufficiently recognized or formal relationship to their United States citizen parent— and thus to the United States—to justify the conferral of citizenship upon them." Brief for Respondent 11. The majority's asserted end, at best, is a simultaneously watered-down and beefed-up version of this interest asserted by the INS. The majority's rendition is weaker than the INS' in that it emphasizes the "opportunity or potential to develop" a relationship rather than the actual relationship about which the INS claims Congress was concerned. The majority's version is also stronger in that it goes past the formal relationship apparently desired by the INS to "real, everyday ties."
Assuming, as the majority does, that Congress was actually concerned about ensuring a "demonstrated opportunity" for a relationship, it is questionable whether such an opportunity qualifies as an "important" governmental interest apart from the existence of an actual relationship. By focusing on "opportunity" rather than reality, the majority presumably improves the chances of a sufficient means-end fit. But in doing so, it dilutes significantly the weight of the interest. It is difficult to see how, in this citizenship-conferral context, anyone profits from a "demonstrated opportunity" for a relationship in the absence of the fruition of an actual tie. Children who have an "opportunity" for such a tie with a parent, of course, may never develop an actual rela-
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