Tenth Circuit Says Samoan Citizenship Question Not for Courts

Loeb & Loeb partner Steven Rosenthal is featured as counsel to three Utah residents — John Fitisemanu, Pale Tuli and Rosavita Tuli — who sued the U.S. Department of State in March 2018 and asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah to declare them birthright U.S. citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment. This Law360 article discusses the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeal’s reversal of a Utah federal judge's order finding that American Samoans are birthright U.S. citizens, holding that the issue belongs in the hands of Congress, not the courts.