The "Uniform Rule" and its exceptions: a history of Congressional naturalization legislation

Authors

Daniel Rice, University of Arkansas

Keywords

U.S. Congress, naturalization, bias, citizenship, immigration

Abstract

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution empowers Congress “[t]o establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.” In Part I of this article, I discuss the American colonial experience with naturalization laws and account for the Naturalization Clause’s. I then examine the historical development of Congress’s “uniform rule” and deconstruct the mechanism by which certain groups have been excluded from and brought back within its reach. Lastly, I scrutinize Congress’s posture towards expatriation, the logical converse of naturalization. In Part II, I ask why Congress might have thought it expedient to carve out statutory exceptions to the naturalization procedures it had earlier prescribed, and I relate the content of the two major kinds of historical exceptions to those procedures: derivative citizenship for women and children and an expedited naturalization timeline for alien veterans.

Recommended Citation

Rice, Daniel (2011) "The "Uniform Rule" and its exceptions: a history of Congressional naturalization legislation," The Ozark Historical Review: Vol. 40, Article 5.

Available at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/ohr/vol40/iss1/5