Vance v. Terrazas

Vance v. Terrazas
Argued October 30, 1979
Decided January 15, 1980
Full case nameCyrus Vance, Secretary of State v. Laurence J. Terrazas
Citations444 U.S. 252 (more)
100 S. Ct. 540; 62 L. Ed. 2d 461
Case history
PriorTerrazas v. Vance, 577 F.2d 7 (7th Cir. 1978)
SubsequentTerrazas v. Muskie, 494 F. Supp. 1017 (N.D. Ill. 1980); Terrazas v. Haig, 653 F.2d 285 (7th Cir. 1981)
Holding
An American cannot have his U.S. citizenship taken away against his will. Intent to give up citizenship needs to be established by itself and cannot be irrebuttably presumed merely because a person did something established by law as an action automatically causing loss of citizenship. However, Congress has power to decide that an intent to give up citizenship may be established by preponderance of evidence.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Warren E. Burger
Associate Justices
William J. Brennan Jr. · Potter Stewart
Byron White · Thurgood Marshall
Harry Blackmun · Lewis F. Powell Jr.
William Rehnquist · John P. Stevens
Case opinions
MajorityWhite, joined by Burger, Blackmun, Powell, Rehnquist
Concur/dissentMarshall
Concur/dissentStevens
DissentBrennan, joined by Stewart (part II)
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amends. V, XIV; Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952

Vance v. Terrazas, 444 U.S. 252 (1980), was a United States Supreme Court decision that established that a United States citizen cannot have their citizenship taken away unless they have acted with an intent to give up that citizenship. The Supreme Court overturned portions of an act of Congress which had listed various actions and had said that the performance of any of these actions could be taken as conclusive, irrebuttable proof of intent to give up U.S. citizenship. However, the Court ruled that a person's intent to give up citizenship could be established through a standard of preponderance of evidence (i.e., more likely than not) — rejecting an argument that intent to relinquish citizenship could only be found on the basis of clear, convincing and unequivocal evidence.[1][2]

  1. ^ Association, American Bar (March 1980). "Supreme Court Report". ABA Journal: 374.
  2. ^ Schoenblum, Jeffrey A. (2009). Multistate and Multinational Estate Planning. Vol. 1. CCH. pp. 9–78. ISBN 978-0-8080-9228-5.

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