Court Opinion

ID: 9431266
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:31:50.915552+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:27.748320
License: Public Domain

Justice Brennan,
concurring.
I join the Court’s opinion. I write separately, however, to spell out in more detail the showing I believe the Government must make to raise a presumption of ineligibility. . The Court holds that a misrepresentation is material if it has “a natural tendency to produce the conclusion that the applicant was qualified” for citizenship. Ante, at 772. A misrepresentation or concealment can be said to have su.ch a tendency, the Court explains, if honest representations “would predictably have disclosed other facts relevant to [the applicant’s] qualifications.” Ante, at 774. Proof by clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence that the misrepresentation had this tendency raises a presumption of ineligibility, which the naturalized citizen is then called upon to rebut. Ante, at 777.
I agree with this construction of the statute. I wish to emphasize, however, that in my view a presumption of ineligibility does not arise unless the Government produces evidence sufficient to raise a fair inference that a statutory disqualifying fact actually existed. It is this fair inference of ineligibility, coupled with the fact that the citizen’s misrepresentation nécessarily frustrated the Government’s investigative efforts, that in my mind justifies the burden-shifting presumption the Court employs. Evidence that simply raises the possibility that a disqualifying fact might have existed does not entitle the Government to the benefit of a presumption that the. citizen was ineligibile, for as we have repeatedly emphasized, citizenship is a most precious right, see, e. g., Klapprott v. United States, 335 U. S. 601, 611-612 (1949), *784and as such should never be forfeited on the basis of mere speculation or suspicion. I therefore would not permit invocation of the presumption of disqualification in circumstances where it would not otherwise be fair to infer that the citizen was actually ineligible.
Because nothing in the,Court’s opinion is inconsistent with this standard, I join it.