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Cite as:  582 U. S. ____ (2017) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington,  D. C.  20543,  of  any  typographical  or  other  formal  errors,  in  order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 16–309 
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DIVNA MASLENJAK, PETITIONER v.
 
UNITED STATES
 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 

APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT
 

[June 22, 2017] 

JUSTICE KAGAN delivered the opinion of the Court. 
A federal statute, 18 U. S. C. §1425(a), makes it a crime
to  “knowingly  procure[ ],  contrary  to  law,  the  naturaliza-
tion of any person.”  And when someone is convicted under 
§1425(a)  of  unlawfully  procuring  her  own  naturalization, 
her  citizenship  is  automatically  revoked.  See  8  U. S. C. 
§1451(e).  In this case, we consider what the Government 
must prove to obtain such a conviction.  We hold that the 
Government  must  establish  that  an  illegal  act  by  the
defendant  played  some  role  in  her  acquisition  of  citizen-
ship.  When the illegal act is a false statement, that means 
demonstrating  that  the  defendant  lied  about  facts  that
would  have  mattered  to  an  immigration  official,  because
they would have justified denying naturalization or would
predictably have led to other facts warranting that result. 

I 
Petitioner  Divna  Maslenjak  is  an  ethnic  Serb  who  re-
sided in Bosnia during the 1990’s, when a civil war between
Serbs and Muslims divided the new country.  In 1998, she 
and  her  family  (her  husband  Ratko  Maslenjak  and  their 
two  children)  met  with  an  American  immigration  official