Felix Frankfurter

“ The Ethiopian war, the rape of Albania, the Spanish crime, and this last idiotic crime, had really broken my connection with sovereigns, potentates, and all those ugly things which are enumerated in the formula of the oath. It is a wonderful formula. Your pledges are only juridical and political. You are asked to sever your connections with the government of your former country, not with the people and the civilization of your former country. And you are asked to give allegiance to the Constitution of your adopted country, that is, to an ideal of life.' Radcliffe Quarterly, August 1941, pp. ”

“ American citizenship is not a right granted on a condition subsequent that the naturalized citizen refrain in the future from uttering any remark or adopting an attitude favorable to his original homeland or those there in power, no matter how distasteful such conduct may be to most of us. ”

“ Such a 'finding of fact' may be the ultimate judgment on a mass of details involving not merely an assessment of the trustworthiness of witnesses but other appropriate inferences that may be drawn from living testimony which elude print. The conclusiveness of a 'finding of fact' depends on the nature of the materials on which the finding is based. ”

“ The naturalized citizen has as much right as the natural born citizen to exercise the cherished freedoms of speech, press and religion, and without 'clear, unequivocal, and convincing' proof that he did not bear or swear true allegiance to the United States at the time of naturalization he cannot be denaturalized. ”

“ Allegiance to this Government and its laws, is a compendious phrase to describe those political and legal institutions that are the enduring features of American political society. We are here dealing with a test expressing a broad conception-a breadth appropriate to the nature of the subject matter, being nothing less than the bonds that tie Americans together in devotion to a common fealty. ”

“ It was there held that proof to bring about a loss of citizenship must be clear and unequivocal. We cannot escape the conviction that the case made out by the Government lacks that solidity of proof which leaves no troubling doubt in deciding a question of such gravity as is implied in an attempt to reduce a person to the status of alien from that of citizen.
The phrase 'finding of fact' may be a summary characterization of complicated factors of varying significance for judgment. ”

“ Views attributed to Baumgartner as to the superiority of German people, schools, engineering techniques, and the virtues of Hitler, expressed in 1927, when he began to work in Kansas City, are the only direct evidence introduced to show that before he was naturalized in 1932, his attitude precluded his truly or honestly taking an oath of allegiance to the United States, its Constitution and its laws. And his statement at the trial that his attitude toward the principles of the American Government was the same in 1932 as it was at the time of the trial, is hardly significant. ”

“ But where the claim of 'illegality' really involves issues of belief or fraud, proof is treacherous and objective judgment, even by the most disciplined minds, precarious. That is why denaturalization on this score calls for weighty proof, especially when the proof of a false or fraudulent oath rests predominantly not upon contemporaneous evidence but is established by later expressions of opinion argumentatively projected, and often through the distorting and self-deluding medium of memory, to an earlier year when qualifications for citizenship were claimed, tested and adjudicated. ”

“ The evidence in the record before us is not sufficiently compelling to require that we penalize a naturalized citizen for the expression of silly or even sinister-sounding views which native-born citizens utter with impunity. ”

“ It is idle to try to capture and confine the spirit of this requirement of proof within any fixed form of words. The exercise of our judgment is of course not at large. We are fully mindful that due observance of the law governing the grant of citizenship to aliens touches the very well-being of the Nation. ”

“ The denial of application for citizenship because the judicial mind has not been satisfied that the test of allegiance has been met, presents a problem very different from the revocation of the naturalization certificate once admission to the community of American citizenship has been decreed. ”

“ Congress alone has been entrusted by the Constitution with the power to give or withhold naturalization and to that end 'to establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization.' Art. I, § 8, Clause 4. In exercising its power, Congress has authorized the courts to grant American citizenship only if the alien has satisfied the conditions imposed by Congress for naturalization. There is no 'right to naturalization unless all statutory requirements are complied with.' United States v. ”

“ To ascertain fulfilment of a test implying so expansive a reach presents difficult and doubtful problems even for judges presumably well-trained in the meaning of our country's institutions and their demands from its citizens. 'Under our Constitution, a naturalized citizen stands on an equal footing with the native citizen in all respects save that of eligibility to the Presidency.' Luria v. ”

“ And during a period when new strength of the land of one's nativity was flamboyantly exploited before its full sinister meaning had been adequately revealed even to some Americans of the oldest lineage, such old cultural loyalty, it is well known, was stimulated into confusion of mind and sometimes to expressions of offensive exuberance. ”

“ It was wonderful as usual. * * * The whole country is under the influence of the insane actions of the Government in Washington which have the character of wild, unbridled despotism.'↑ The retention of cultural ties despite the change in 'juridical and political' status has thus been put by a distinguished historian, Gaetano Salvemini, in speaking of his own naturalization: 'There is in this country a wider area of generosity than in any other country-at least in Europe. It is this feeling that one is at home here that conquers you little by little. ”

“ Non-fulfilment of specific conditions, like time of residence or the required number of supporting witnesses, are easily established, and when established leave no room for discretion because Congress has left no area of discretion. ”

“ The speech was a horrible mixture of war agitation and laughable talk about the freedom of press, speech, etc., which this country allegedly has and which has to be protected with guns. * * * we drank a bottle of Pschorr brew together to the welfare and the future of Germany. * * * The Jewish-American-English fortress in the heart of Central Europe has fallen. A terrible defeat for the above named powers who will probably have a difficult time recovering from this. * * * Listened to Hitler's speech from the Krolls Opera House on 15.2. ”