End date 1998 | ||
Full case name Lorelyn Penero Miller v. Madeleine K. Albright, Secretary of State Citations 523 U.S. 420 (more)118 S.Ct. 1428; 140 L.Ed.2d 575 Prior history Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; 96 F.3d 1467 Plurality Stevens, joined by Rehnquist Concurrence O'Connor, joined by Kennedy Concurrence Scalia, joined by Thomas | ||
Miller v. Albright, 523 U.S. 420 (1998), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld the validity of laws relating to U.S. citizenship at birth for children born outside the United States, out of wedlock, to an American parent. The Court declined to overturn a more restrictive citizenship requirement applying to an illegitimate foreign-born child of an American father, as opposed to a child born to an American mother under similar circumstances.
Lorelyn Miller was born in the Philippines to an American father and a Philippine mother (who were not married). She later applied for a U.S. passport, but was turned down on the grounds that she was not a U.S. citizen. Miller challenged the law under which she had been denied citizenship, claiming that the law was unconstitutionally discriminatory because it imposed stricter requirements for a foreign-born illegitimate child of an American father than would have applied if her American parent had been her mother.
Six of the nine justices of the Supreme Court rejected Miller's challenge to the law, in three separate opinions that denied her citizenship claim for different reasons. Three justices dissented, agreeing with Miller that the law in question was impermissibly discriminatory and should have been struck down.
A subsequent case, Nguyen v. I.N.S., 533 U.S. 53 (2001), held by a 5–4 majority that the law at issue in the Miller case was acceptable.