Sessions v. Morales-Santana

Under federal law, a child born abroad out of wedlock to a U.S. citizen father could gain citizenship only if the father had lived continuously in the U.S. for ten years before the child's birth (at least five after turning 14), while a child born to a citizen mother needed only one year of the mother's continuous prior U.S. residence; Jose Morales, who left the U.S. for the Dominican Republic at 18, hadn't met the ten-year/five-after-14 requirement, and his son Morales-Santana (defendant), who moved to the U.S. at 13 and was later convicted of crimes, faced deportation and challenged the sex-based residency disparity as unconstitutional. The court of appeals agreed the statute was unconstitutional, and the government (plaintiff) sought Supreme Court review.