Lutwak v. United States
United States Supreme Court
344 U.S. 604 (1953)
The defendants arranged and paid two honorably discharged World War II veterans to marry two aliens in France solely to secure their entry into the United States under the War Brides Act, with everyone involved understanding the marriages would be dissolved once entry was achieved; upon entry, the participants falsely represented to immigration authorities that the marriages were made in good faith and intended to be permanent. A jury convicted several defendants of conspiracy to defraud the United States, and they appealed, arguing their marriages were formally valid under general conflict-of-laws principles.
Whether the War Brides Act is violated if individuals conspire to conceal from the authorities that marriages entered into by Armed Services veterans and aliens of foreign countries were never intended to be permanent.