## Facts

- Beys Afroyim, a naturalized U.S. citizen, moved to Israel in 1950.
- In 1951, Afroyim voted in an election for the Israeli Knesset.
- Section 401(e) of the Nationality Act of 1940 provided that a U.S. citizen would lose citizenship by voting “in a political election in a foreign state.”
- In 1960, the State Department denied Afroyim’s passport renewal on the ground that he had lost U.S. citizenship under § 401(e).
- Afroyim filed a federal declaratory judgment action, asserting that Congress could not terminate his citizenship without his voluntary renunciation, relying on the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and the Fifth Amendment.

## Issues

1. Whether Congress may revoke the U.S. citizenship of a naturalized citizen for voting in a foreign political election absent voluntary renunciation of citizenship.
2. Whether the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause limits Congress’s power to impose involuntary expatriation.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Second Circuit.
- The Court held that Congress lacks constitutional power to divest a person of U.S. citizenship absent the citizen’s voluntary renunciation.
- The Court ruled that § 401(e) was unconstitutional to the extent it mandated loss of citizenship based solely on voting in a foreign election without proof of voluntary relinquishment.
- The Court overruled *Perez v. Brownell*, which had upheld expatriation for foreign voting under an implied foreign affairs power.
- Afroyim was declared to remain a U.S. citizen.

## Legal Principles

- The Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause constitutionalizes citizenship for persons born or naturalized in the United States and places that status beyond involuntary destruction by the government.
- Congress has no express or implied power to strip Fourteenth Amendment citizenship as a sanction for conduct, including conduct asserted to affect foreign relations.
- Loss of citizenship requires the citizen’s voluntary relinquishment; conduct such as voting in a foreign election cannot be treated as expatriation without voluntary intent to renounce citizenship.
- Statutory expatriation provisions are invalid insofar as they impose involuntary loss of citizenship on Fourteenth Amendment citizens.

## Conclusion

The Court held that U.S. citizenship secured by the Fourteenth Amendment cannot be taken away by Congress without the citizen’s voluntary renunciation, and it invalidated expatriation based solely on voting in a foreign election.


Afroyim v. Rusk, 387 U.S. 253 (1967)