Fedorenko v. United States

Fedorenko v. United States
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 15, 1980 Decided January 21, 1981
Full case name	Feodor Fedorenko v. United States
Citations	449 U.S. 490 (more) 101 S.Ct. 737; 66 L.Ed.2d 686
Prior history	Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Holding
As a person who had assisted the enemy in persecuting civilians, Fedorenko's visa was illegally procured and therefore his citizenship must be revoked under § 340(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan, Jr. · Potter Stewart Byron White · Thurgood Marshall Harry Blackmun · Lewis F. Powell, Jr. William Rehnquist · John P. Stevens
Case opinions
Majority	Marshall, joined by Brennan, Stewart, Powell, Rehnquist
Concurrence	Burger
Concurrence	Blackmun
Dissent	White
Dissent	Stevens

Fedorenko v. United States, 449 U.S. 490 (1981), was a United States Supreme Court case which held that people who assisted in Nazi persecutions, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, were not eligible for visas to enter the United States, and thus could not legally obtain United States citizenship. It has been used as an important precedent in many denaturalization cases against former Nazis.

See also

• Chaunt v. United States, 364 U.S. 350 (1960)
• Rogers v. Bellei, 401 U.S. 815 (1971)
• Kungys v. United States, 485 U.S. 759 (1988)
• Negusie v. Holder, 555 U.S. 511 (2009)
• Boļeslavs Maikovskis, Latvian Nazi collaborator, fled the U.S. before his extradition
• Anton Geiser, who lost his US citizenship for similar reasons, this case having played an important part in the process

Further reading

• Dienstag, Abbe L. (1982), "Fedorenko v. United States: War Crimes, the Defense of Duress, and American Nationality Law", Columbia Law Review, 82 (1): 120–183, doi:10.2307/1122241.