Vance v. Terrazas case brief

Vance v. Terrazas case brief summary
444 U.S. 252 (1980)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Certiorari was issued to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to determine if it was properly held that Congress had no power to legislate the evidentiary standard contained in 8 U.S.C.S. § 1481(c), and that the Constitution required that proof that appellee renounced allegiance and relinquished United States citizenship be not merely by a preponderance of the evidence, but by clear, convincing and unequivocal evidence.


DISCUSSION

• The Court reversed and remanded the judgment below which held that Congress had no power to legislate the evidentiary standard contained in 8 U.S.C.S. § 1481(c), and that the Constitution required that proof that a citizen renounced allegiance and relinquished United States citizenship be not merely by a preponderance of the evidence, but by clear, convincing and unequivocal evidence. 
• The Court held that in proving expatriation, an expatriating act and an intent to relinquish citizenship must be proved by a preponderance of the evidence. 
• The Court further held that when one of the statutory expatriating acts is proved, it is constitutional to presume it to have been a voluntary act until and unless proved otherwise by the actor. 
• The Court determined that if he succeeded, there could be no expatriation, but if he failed, the question remained whether on all the evidence the government had satisfied its burden of proof that the expatriating act was performed with the necessary intent to relinquish citizenship.

CONCLUSION
The Court reversed and remanded the judgment upon a finding that an expatriating act and an intent to relinquish citizenship had to be proved by a preponderance of the evidence to establish loss of citizenship, and seeing no basis for invalidating the evidentiary prescriptions contained in 8 U.S.C.S. § 1481(c), held that the standard of proof and statutory presumption therein were constitutional.

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