## Facts

- Clemente Martinez Perez was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1909 and lived in the United States until his family moved to Mexico around 1919–1920.
- He lived in Mexico for decades, returning temporarily to the United States in 1943 and 1944 as a railroad laborer after representing himself as a native-born Mexican citizen.
- In 1947, Perez sought admission at El Paso claiming U.S. citizenship.
- In administrative proceedings, Perez admitted that (1) he had voted in Mexican political elections, including in 1946, and (2) between 1944 and 1947 he remained outside the United States to avoid U.S. military service during wartime.
- Federal authorities determined he lost U.S. nationality under § 401(e) (voting in a foreign political election) and § 401(j) (remaining abroad during war to evade military service) of the Nationality Act of 1940, and treated him as deportable.
- Perez sought a declaratory judgment that he remained a U.S. citizen; the lower federal courts rejected his claim.

## Issues

1. Whether Congress may provide for loss of U.S. nationality when a citizen votes in a foreign political election under § 401(e) of the Nationality Act of 1940.
2. Whether the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause prevents Congress from withdrawing citizenship on that basis.
3. Whether § 401(j) (wartime evasion of military service by remaining abroad) is constitutional.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment against Perez.
- The Court held Congress had constitutional authority to impose loss of nationality for voting in a foreign political election under § 401(e).
- The Court concluded that this authority derived from Congress’s power over foreign relations, implemented through the Necessary and Proper Clause, because voting in a foreign election may affect U.S. foreign relations and create international difficulties.
- The Court rejected the argument that the Fourteenth Amendment barred Congress from withdrawing citizenship in these circumstances.
- The Court expressly declined to decide the constitutionality of § 401(j).

## Legal Principles

- Congress may, under its foreign-relations powers and the Necessary and Proper Clause, prescribe expatriation as a consequence of specified foreign political conduct, including voting in a foreign political election.
- Expatriation under § 401(e) may be based on voluntary performance of the act, without requiring proof of a subjective intent to relinquish U.S. citizenship.
- The Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause does not, by itself, eliminate Congress’s otherwise valid authority to define statutory grounds for loss of nationality in the foreign-relations context.
- When a case can be resolved on one statutory ground, the Court may refrain from addressing the constitutionality of alternative grounds.

## Conclusion

The Court upheld Congress’s power to terminate U.S. citizenship for voting in a foreign political election under § 401(e), found no Fourteenth Amendment bar to that statutory consequence, and left unresolved the constitutionality of § 401(j) concerning wartime draft evasion by remaining abroad.


Perez v. Brownell, 356 U.S. 44 (1958)