Briefs are being filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, in Tuaua v United States, 13-5272. The government’s brief was filed on October 25 and the brief of the Samoans is due November 22. The issue is whether the U.S. Constitution provides for citizenship to people born in American Samoa. American Samoa is the only populated jurisdiction in the United States in which persons born there are not automatically citizens.

One of the plaintiffs now lives in Hawaii and another now lives in Washington state, but they are not able to register to vote in those states, because they are considered U.S. “nationals”, not citizens. Persons born in American Samoa can not be naturalized unless they leave Samoa. The U.S. District Court, in accordance with precedents going back to 1901, ruled that unorganized territories are not part of the United States, so the language in the 14th amendment conferring citizenship to persons born in the United States does not apply to Samoans. Congress has provided that persons born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam, are citizens, but Congress has never granted citizenship to Samoans.

See here for more information about the plaintiffs. American Samoa, since 1978, has elected a Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.