Court Opinion

ID: 9422539
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:03:09.964924+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:37.525501
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Stewart,
with whom Mr. Justice White joins, dissenting.
The Court’s opinion is lengthy, but its thesis is simple: (1) The withdrawal of citizenship which these statutes provide is “punishment.” (2) Punishment cannot constitutionally be imposed except after a criminal trial and conviction. (3) The statutes are therefore unconstitu*202tional. As with all syllogisms, the conclusion is inescapable if the premises are correct. But I cannot agree with the Court's major premise — that the divestiture of citizenship which these statutes prescribe is punishment in the constitutional sense of that term.1
I.
Despite the broad sweep of some of the language of its opinion, the Court as I understand it does not hold that involuntary deprivation of citizenship is inherently and always a penal sanction — requiring the safeguards of a criminal trial. Such a determination would overrule at least three decisive precedents in this Court.
Nearly 50 years ago the Court held that Congress had constitutional power to denationalize a native-born citizen who married a foreigner but continued to reside here. Mackenzie v. Hare, 239 U. S. 299. The Court there explicitly rejected the argument “that the citizenship of plaintiff was an incident to her birth in the United States, and, under the Constitution and laws of the United States, it became a right, privilege and immunity which could not be taken away from her except as a punishment for crime or by her voluntary expatriation.” 239 U. S., at 308. The power of Congress to/ denationalize a native-born citizen, without a criminal trial, was reaffirmed in Savorgnan v. United States, 338 U. S. 491. And less than five years ago, in Perez v. Brownell, 356 U. S. 44, the Court again upheld this congressional power in an opinion which unambiguously rejected the notion, advanced in *203that case by the dissenters,2 that the Mackenzie and Savorgnan decisions stand only for the proposition that citizenship may be voluntarily relinquished or abandoned either expressly or by conduct. In short, it has been established for almost 50 years that Congress under some circumstances may, without providing for a criminal trial, make expatriation the consequence of the voluntary conduct of a United States citizen, irrespective of the citizen’s subjective intention to renounce his nationality, and irrespective too of his awareness that denationalization will be the result of his conduct.3
II.
The position taken by the Court today is simply that, unlike the statutes involved in Mackenzie, Savorgnan and Perez, the statutes at issue in the present case employ deprivation of citizenship as a penal sanction. In support of this position, the Court devotes many pages of its opinion to a discussion of a quite different law, enacted in 1865, amended in 1912, and repealed in 1940. That law4 provided for forfeiture of the “rights of citizenship” as an additional penalty for deserters from the armed forces and for enrolled draftees who departed from their district or from the United States “to avoid any draft into the military or naval service, duly ordered . . . .” That statute, as the Court correctly says, “was in terms *204punitive,” and I agree with the Court that the statute’s legislative history, as well as subsequent judicial decisions construing it, makes it clear that the law was punitive- — • imposing additional punishment upon those convicted of either of the offenses mentioned.5
In these cases, however, we have before us statutes which were enacted in 1944 and 1952, respectively. In construing these statutes, I think nothing is to be gained from the legislative history of a quite different law enacted by a quite different Congress in 1865, nor from the reports of still another Congress which amended that law in 1912. Unlike the 1865 law, the legislation at issue in the cases before us is not “in terms punitive.” And there is nothing in the history of this legislation which persuades me that these statutes, though not in terms penal, nonetheless embody a purpose of the Congresses which enacted them to impose criminal punishment without the safeguards of a criminal trial.
Unlike the two sections of the Nationality Act of 1940 which were in issue in Perez v. Brownell6 and Trop v. Dulles,7 § 401 (j) did not have its genesis in the Cabinet Committee’s draft code which President Roosevelt submitted to Congress in 1938.8 Indeed, § 401 (j) was the product of a totally different environment — the experience of a nation engaged in a global war.
On February 16, 1944, Attorney General Biddle addressed a letter to the Chairman of the Senate Immigra*205tion Committee, calling attention to circumstances which had arisen after the institution of the draft in World War II, and suggesting the legislation which subsequently became § 401 (j). The Attorney General’s letter stated in part:
“I invite your attention to the desirability of enacting legislation which would provide (1) for the expatriation of citizens of the United States who in time of war or during a national emergency leave the United States or remain outside thereof for the purpose of evading service in the armed forces of the United States and (2) for the exclusion from the United States of aliens who leave this country for the above-mentioned purpose.
“Under existing law a national of the United States, whether by birth or by naturalization, becomes expatriated by operation of law if he (1) obtains naturalization in .a foreign state; (2) takes an oath of allegiance to a foreign country; (3) serves in the armed forces of a foreign state if he thereby acquires the nationality of such foreign state; (4) accepts employment under a foreign state for which only nationals of such state are eligible; (5) votes in a political election in a foreign state or participates in an election or plebiscite to determine the sovereignty over foreign territory; (6) makes a formal renunciation of nationality before a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States in a foreign state; (7) deserts from the armed forces of the United States in time of war and is convicted thereof by a court martial; or (8) is convicted of treason (U. S. C., title 8, sec. 801). Machinery is provided whereby a person who is denied any right or privilege of citizenship on the ground that he has become expatriated may secure a judicial determination of his status; and if he is outside of the United States he is entitled to a *206certificate of identity which permits him to enter and remain in the United States until his status has been determined by the courts (Nationality Act of 1940, sec. 503; U. S. C., title 8, sec. 903).
“The files of this Department disclose that at the present time there are many citizens of the United States who have left this country for the purpose of escaping service in the armed forces. While such persons are liable to prosecution for violation of the Selective Service and Training Act of 1940, if and when they return to this country, it would seem proper that in addition they should lose their United States citizenship. Persons who are unwilling to perform their duty to their country and abandon it during its time of need are much less worthy of citizenship than are persons who become expatriated on any of the existing grounds.
“Accordingly, I recommend the enactment of legislation which would provide (1) for the expatriation of citizens of the United States who in time of war or during a national emergency leave the United States or remain outside thereof for the purpose of evading service in the armed forces of the United States and (2) for the exclusion from the United States of aliens who leave this country for that purpose. Any person who may be deemed to have become expatriated by operation of the foregoing provision would be entitled to have his status determined by the courts pursuant to the above-mentioned section of the Nationality Act of 1940.” 9
The bill was passed unanimously by both the House and the Senate, and became Public Law No. 431 of the Seventy-eighth Congress. Neither the committee reports nor the limited debate on the measure in Congress *207adds any substantial gloss to the legislative action.10 And the legislative history of § 349 (a) (10) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, the statute directly involved in the second of the two cases now before us, *208gives no additional illumination as to the purpose of the Eighty-second Congress, since the substantive provisions of that statute were but a recodification of § 401 (j) of the 1940 Act.11
The question of whether or not a statute is punitive ultimately depends upon whether the disability it imposes is for the purpose of vengeance or deterrence, or whether the disability is but an incident to some broader regulatory objective. See Cummings v. Missouri, 4 Wall. 277, 320, 322; United States v. Lovett, 328 U. S. 303, 308-312; *209Trop v. Dulles, 356 U. S., at 107-109. See generally, Flemming v. Nestor, 363 U. S. 603, 613-617; cf. De Veau v. Braisted, 363 U. S. 144,160; Communist Party v. Subversive Activities Control Board, 367 U. S. 1, 83-88. In commenting on the nature of this kind of inquiry, the Court said in Flemming v. Nestor, “We observe initially that only the clearest proof could suffice to establish the unconstitutionality of a statute on such a ground. Judicial inquiries into Congressional motives are at best a hazardous matter, and when that inquiry seeks to go behind objective manifestations it becomes a dubious affair indeed. Moreover, the presumption of constitutionality with which this enactment, like any other, comes to us forbids us lightly to choose that reading of the statute’s setting which will invalidate it over that which will save it.” 363 U. S., at 617.
In the light of the standard enunciated in Nestor, I can find no clear proof that the prime purpose of this legislation was punitive. To be sure, there is evidence that the deterrent effect of the legislation was considered. Moreover, the attitude of some members of Congress toward those whom the legislation was intended to reach was obviously far from neutral. But the fact that the word “penalty” was used by an individual Senator in the congressional debates is hardly controlling. As The Chief Justice has so wisely remarked, “How simple would be the tasks of constitutional adjudication and of law generally if specific problems could be solved by inspection of the labels pasted on them!” 12
It seems clear to me that these putative indicia of punitive intent are far overbalanced by the fact that this legislation dealt with a basic problem of wartime morale reaching far beyond concern for any individual affected. The legislation applies only to those who have left this *210country or remained outside of it for the purpose of avoiding the draft. Congress can reasonably be understood to have been saying that those who flee the country for such express purposes do more than simply disobey the law and avoid the imposition of criminal sanctions. They disassociate themselves entirely from their nation, seeking refuge from their wartime obligations under the aegis of another sovereign. Congress could reasonably have concluded that the existence of such a group, who voluntarily and demonstrably put aside their United States citizenship “for the duration,” could have an extremely adverse effect upon the morale and thus the war effort not only of the armed forces, but of the millions enlisted in the defense of their nation on the civilian front. During the consideration of § 401 (j) in Congress there were repeated references to the expectation that fugitive draft evaders then living abroad would return to this country after the war to resume citizenship and to enjoy the fruits of victory. The effect upon wartime morale of the known existence of such a group, while perhaps not precisely measurable in terms of impaired military efficiency, could obviously have been considered substantial. Denationalization of this class of voluntary expatriates was a rational way of dealing with this problem by removing its visible cause. In light of this broader purpose, I cannot find, as the Court does, that § 401 (j) was motivated primarily by the desire to wreak vengeance upon those individuals who fled the country to avoid military service. Rather, the statute seems to me precisely the same kind of regulatory measure, rational and efficacious, which this Court upheld against similar objections in Perez v. Brownell, supra.13
*211III.
For the reasons stated, I cannot find in the terms of these statutes or in their legislative history anything close to the “clearest proof” that the basic congressional purpose was to impose punishment. But that alone does not answer the constitutional inquiry in these cases. As with any other exercise of congressional power, a law which imposes deprivation of citizenship, to be constitutionally valid, must bear a rational relationship to an affirmative power possessed by Congress under the Constitution. The appellants submit that in enacting this legislation, Congress could rationally have been drawing on any one of three sources of recognized constitutional power: the implied power to enact legislation for the effective conduct of foreign affairs; the express power to wage war, to raise armies, and to provide for the common defense; and the inherent attributes of sovereignty.
The appellants argue that this legislation, like the statutory provision sustained in Perez v. Brownell, supra, has a direct relationship to foreign affairs. They point out that international complications could arise if this country attempted to effect the return of citizen draft evaders by requests to a foreign sovereign which that nation might be unwilling to grant. The appellants insist that the possibility of international embroilments resulting from problems caused by fugitive draft evaders is not fanciful, pointing to the background of international incidents preceding the War of 1812, and the long history, later in the nineteenth century, of this country's involvement with other nations over the asserted liability of our naturalized citizens to military obligations imposed by their native countries.14 Expatriation of those who leave or remain *212away from the United States with draft evasion as their purpose, the appellants say, might reasonably be attributed to a congressional belief that this was the only practical way to nip these potential international problems in the bud. Compare. Perez v. Brownell, 356 U. S., at 60; Trop v. Dulles, 356 U. S., at 106 (concurring opinion).
In the view I take of this case, it is unnecessary to pursue further an inquiry as to whether the power to regulate foreign affairs could justify denationalization for the conduct in question. For I think it apparent that Congress in enacting the statute was drawing upon another power, broad and far reaching.
A basic purpose of the Constitution was to “provide for the common defence.” To that end, the Framers expressly conferred upon Congress a compendium of powers which have come to be called the “war power.” 15 Responsive to the scope and magnitude of ultimate national need, the war power is “the power to wage war successfully.” See Charles Evans Hughes, War Powers under the Constitution, 42 A. B. A. Rep. 232, 238.
It seems to me evident that Congress was drawing upon this power when it enacted the legislation before us. To be sure, the underlying purpose of this legislation can *213hardly be refined to the point of isolating one single, precise objective. The desire to end a potential drain upon this country’s military manpower was clearly present in the minds of the legislators and would itself have constituted a purpose having sufficient rational nexus to the exercise of the war power. Indeed, there is no more fundamental aspect of this broad power than the building and maintaining of armed forces sufficient for the common defense. Selective Draft Law Cases, 245 U. S. 366; see Falbo v. United States, 320 U. S. 549. But, in any event, the war power clearly supports the objective of removing a corrosive influence upon the morale of a nation at war. As the Court said in Hirabayashi v. United States, 320 U. S. 81, 93, the war power “extends to every matter, and activity so related to war as substantially to affect its conduct and progress. The power is not restricted to the winning of victories in the field and the repulse of enemy forces. It embraces every phase of the national defense, including the protection of war materials and the members of the armed forces from injury and from the dangers which attend the rise, prosecution and progress of war.” See Lichter v. United States, 334 U. S. 742.
This legislation is thus quite different from the statute held invalid in Trop v. Dulles, supra. In that case there were not five members of the Court who were able to find the “requisite rational relation” between the war power of Congress and § 401 (g) of the 1940 Act imposing denationalization upon wartime deserters from the armed forces. As the concurring opinion pointed out, the statute was “not limited in its effects to those who desert in a foreign country or who flee to another land.” 356 U. S., at 107. Indeed, “The Solicitor General acknowledged that forfeiture of citizenship would have occurred if the entire incident had transpired in this country.” 356 U. S., at 92. It was emphasized that conduct far short of disloyalty could technically constitute the military offense *214of desertion, 356 U. S., at 112, 113, and that the harshness of denationalization for conduct so potentially equivocal was “an important consideration where the asserted power to expatriate has only a slight or tenuous relation to the granted power.” 356 U. S., at 110.
The legislation now before us, on the other hand, is by its terms completely inapplicable to those guilty of draft evasion who have remained in the United States; it is exclusively aimed at those, whether or not ever criminally convicted, who have gone to or remained in another land to escape the duty of military service. Moreover, the conduct which the legislation reaches could never be equivocal in nature, but is always and clearly a “refusal to perform this ultimate duty of American citizenship.” Trop v. Dulles, 356 U. S., at 112 (concurring opinion).
IV.
There is one more point to be made as to the substantive provisions of the legislation before us in these cases. Previous decisions have suggested that congressional exen cise of the power to expatriate may be subject to a further constitutional restriction — a limitation upon the kind of activity which may be'made the basis of denationalization. Withdrawal of citizenship is a drastic measure. Moreover, the power to expatriate endows government with authority to define and to limit the society which it represents and to which it is responsible.
This Court has never held that Congress’ power to expatriate may be used unsparingly in every area in which it has general power to act. Our previous decisions upholding involuntary denationalization all involved conduct inconsistent with undiluted allegiance to this country. But I think the legislation at issue in these cases comes so clearly within the compass of those decisions as to make unnecessary in this case an inquiry as to *215what the ultimate limitation upon the expatriation power may be.
The conduct to which this legislation applies, involving not only the attribute of flight or absence from this country in time of war or national emergency, but flight or absence for the express purpose of evading the duty of helping to defend this country, amounts to an unequivocal and conspicuous manifestation of nonallegiance, whether considered objectively or subjectively. Ours is a tradition of the citizen soldier. As this Court has said, “[T]he very conception of a just government and its duty to the citizen includes the reciprocal obligation of the citizen to render military service in case of need and the right to compel it.” Selective Draft Law Cases, 245 U. S. 366, at 378. It is hardly an improvident exercise of constitutional power for Congress to disown those who have disowned this Nation in time of ultimate need.
V.
For the reasons stated, I believe the substantive provisions of § 401 (j) of the 1940 Act and of § 349 (a) (10) of the 1952 Act are constitutionally valid. In addition to its substantive provisions, however, § 349 (a) (10) declares:
“For the purposes of this paragraph failure to comply with any provision of any compulsory service laws of the United States shall raise the presumption that the departure from or absence from the United States was for the purpose of evading or avoiding training and service in the military, air, or naval forces of the United States.”
I think the evidentiary presumption which the statute creates is clearly invalid, and that it fatally infected the administrative determination that Joseph Henry Cort had lost his citizenship.
*216The District Court did not mention this statutory presumption, and it is, therefore, impossible to know how much the court relied upon it, if at all. Indeed, the District Court’s attention in this case was oriented primarily towards the issue of its jurisdiction and the basic issue of the constitutionality of the substantive provisions of § 349 (a) (10). In view of its holding that § 349 (a) (10) is unconstitutional, the court understandably did not give exhaustive attention to the factual issues presented, devoting but a single short paragraph to the question of whether Cort’s conduct had brought him within the statute. 187 F. Supp., at 686.
But it is clear that the final reviewing agency in the State Department relied heavily upon this presumption in determining that Cort had lost his citizenship. The Board of Review on the Loss of Nationality, in its memorandum affirming the initial administrative determination that Cort had lost his citizenship, stated that “[b]y failing to comply with the notices sent to him by his local board, Dr. Cort brought upon himself the presumption mentioned in Section 349 (a) (10), that his continued absence from the United States was for the purpose of evading or avoiding training and service in the military, air, or naval forces of the United States. Even if the Board should consider that the presumption could be overcome by showing that a person remained abroad for a purpose other than to avoid the military service, the evidence in Dr. Cort’s case, taken as a whole, does not show that he remained abroad for a purpose other than to avoid being drafted.” (Emphasis added.) One of the Board’s specific findings was “that Dr. Cort has not overcome the presumption raised in the last sentence of Section 349 (a) (10) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.”
As was said in Speiser v. Randall, 357 U. S. 513, at 520-521, “it is commonplace that the outcome of a law*217suit — and hence the vindication of legal rights — depends more often on how the factfinder appraises the facts than on a disputed construction of a statute or interpretation of a line of precedents. Thus the procedures by which the facts of the case are determined assume an importance fully as great as the validity of the substantive rule of law to be applied. And the more important the rights at stake the more important must be the procedural safeguards surrounding those rights.”
The presumption created by § 349 (a) (10) is wholly at odds with the decisions of the Court which hold that in cases such as this a heavy burden is upon the Government to prove an act of expatriation by clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence. Gonzales v. Landon, 350 U. S. 920; Nishikawa v. Dulles, 356 U. S. 129. This standard commands that “evidentiary ambiguities are not to be resolved against the citizen.” Nishikawa v. Dulles, 356 U. S., at 136.
Without pausing to consider whether this evidentiary standard is a constitutional one, it is clear to me that the statutory presumption here in question is constitutionally invalid because there is insufficient “rational connection between the fact proved and the ultimate fact presumed.” Tot v. United States, 319 U. S. 463, 467. “A statute creating a presumption that is arbitrary or that operates to deny a fair opportunity to repel it violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Manley v. Georgia, 279 U. S. 1, 6. A federal, statute which creates such a presumption is no less violative of Fifth Amendment due process. “Mere legislative fiat may not take the place of fact in the determination of issues involving life, liberty or property.” Ibid. It is “essential that there shall be some rational connection between the fact proved and the ultimate fact presumed, and that the inference of one fact from proof of another shall not be *218so unreasonable as to be a purely arbitrary mandate.” Mobile, J. & K. C. R. Co. v. Turnipseed, 219 U. S. 35, 43. Cf. Speiser v. Randall, supra.
The failure of a person abroad to comply with notices sent by his draft board would obviously be relevant evidence in determining whether that person had gone or remained abroad for the purpose of avoiding military service. But the statute goes much further. It creates a presumption of an expatriating act from failure to comply with “any provision of any compulsory service laws” by a citizen abroad, regardless of the nature of the violations and regardless of the innocence of his purpose in originally leaving the United States. The various compulsory service laws of the United States contain a multitude of provisions, many of them technical or relatively insignificant. To draw from the violation of a single such provision a presumption of expatriation, with its solemn consequences, is, I think, to engage in irrationality so gross as to be constitutionally impermissible.16
It is clear from the record in this case that Cort’s sole purpose in leaving the United States in 1951 was to accept a position as a Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, England. The record also makes clear that in 1946 Cort was called up under the Selective Service law, physically examined, and classified as 4F because of physical disability. The record further shows that Cort voluntarily registered under the Doctors Draft Act, making special arrangements with his draft board to do so in advance of the effective date for registration under the statute, a few days before he left for Europe. Cort filed an affidavit in which he swore that it was his belief, *219in the light of his physical disability, that the induction order which he received in England was not issued in good faith to secure his military service, but that its purpose instead was to force him to return to the United States to be investigated by the House Committee on Un-American Activities or prosecuted under the Smith Act. He has made repeated efforts to arrange with Selective Service officials for the fulfillment, albeit belatedly, of his military obligations, if any, and in 1959 his wife came to the United States and met with officials of the Selective Service system for that purpose. The very reason he applied in Prague for a United States passport was, as he swore, so that he could return to the United States in order to respond to the indictment for draft evasion now pending against him in Massachusetts and to fulfill his Selective Service obligations, if any. When Cort applied in Prague for a passport, the American Consul there, who interviewed him, stated his opinion in writing that he had no reason to disbelieve Cort’s sworn statement that he had not remained outside the United States to avoid military service.17 I mention this evidence as disclosed by the present record only to indicate why I think a new administrative hearing freed from the weight of the statutory presumption is in order, not to imply any prejudgment of what I think the ultimate administrative decision should be.
In No. 3, Rusk v. Cort, I would vacate the judgment of the District Court and remand the case with instructions to declare null and void the certificate of loss of nationality *220issued to Cort by the Secretary of State, so that upon Cort’s renewed application for a passport, an administrative hearing could be had, free of the evidentiary presumption of § 349 (a) (10). In the event that such administrative proceedings should result in a finding that Cort had lost his United States citizenship, he would be entitled to a de novo judicial hearing18 in which the Government would have the burden of proving an act of expatriation by clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence. Gonzales v. Landon, 350 U. S. 920; Nishikawa v. Dulles, 356 U. S. 129.
In No. 2, Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, I would reverse the judgment of the District Court.

 The statute involved in No. 2, Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, is § 401 (j) of the Nationality Act of 1940, as amended, 58 Stat. 746. The statute involved in No. 3, Rusk v. Cort, is § 349 (a) (10) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, 8 U. S. C. § 1481 (a) (10). The substantive provisions of these statutes are practically identical. I agree with the Court that the jurisdictional objection and the claims of collateral estoppel in No. 2 are without merit, and that the constitutional validity of both statutes must therefore be determined.

 356 U. S., at 62 (dissenting opinion).

 In Perez v. Brownell, the Court pointed out that the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States . . .” does not restrict the power of Congress to enact denaturalization legislation. It was there stated that “there is nothing in the terms, the context, the history or the manifest purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment to warrant drawing from it a restriction upon the power otherwise possessed by Congress to withdraw citizenship.” 356 U. S., at 58, n. 3.

 Act of March 3, 1865, § 21, 13 Stat. 490.

 This law was the direct predecessor of § 401 (g) of the Nationality Act of 1940, providing the additional penalty of loss of citizenship upon those convicted by court-martial of deserting the armed forces in time of war (a provision subsequently invalidated in Trop v. Dulles, 356 U. S. 86).

 356 U. S. 44 (involving §401 (e)).

 356 U. S. 86 (involving § 401 (g)).

 See Perez v. Brownell, 356 U. S., at 52-57; Trop v. Dulles, 356 U. S., at 94-95; Codification of the Nationality Laws of the United States, H. R. Comm. Print, pt. 1, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. 68-69.

 S. Rep. No. 1075, 78th Cong., 2d Sess. 2.

 The House Committee Report does contain some particularization of the problem to which the legislation was addressed: “It is, of course, not known how many citizens or aliens have left the United States for the purpose of evading military service. The Department of Justice discovered that in the western district of Texas, in the vicinity of El Paso alone, there were over 800 draft delinquents recorded in the local Federal Bureau of Investigation office, born in this country and, therefore citizens, who had crossed the border into Mexico for the purpose of evading the draft, but with the expectation of returning to the United States to resume residence after the war.” H. R. Rep. No. 1229, 78th Cong., 2d Sess. 1-2. In explaining the bill to the House Committee of the Whole, Representative Dickstein, the Chairman of the House Committee on Immigration, stated: “I would classify this piece of legislation as a bill to denaturalize and denationalize all draft dodgers who left this country knowing that there was a possibility that they might be drafted in this war and that they might have to serve in the armed forces, in the naval forces, or the marines, and in an effort to get out of such service. We are all American citizens and our country has a great stake in this war; nevertheless, we have found hundreds of men who have left this country to go to certain parts of Mexico and other South American countries with the idea of evading military service and of returning after the war is over, and taking their old places in our society.” 90 Cong. Rec. 3261.
In explaining the bill to the Senate, Senator Russell, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Immigration, stated: “The . . . bill . . . relates to the class of persons, whether citizens of the United States or aliens, who departed from the United States in order to avoid service in the armed forces of the United States under the Selective Service Act. Information before the committee indicated that on one day several hundred persons departed from the United States through the city of El Paso, Tex., alone, in order to avoid service in either the Army or the Navy of the United States, and to avoid selection under the selective-service law. This bill provides that any person who is a national of the United States, or an American citizen, and who in time of national stress departed from the United States to *208another country to avoid serving his country, shall be deprived of his nationality.
“It further provides that any alien who is subject to military service under the terms of the Selective Service Act, and who left this country to avoid military service, shall thereafter be forever barred from admission to the United States.
“Mr. President, I do not see how anyone could object to such a bill. An alien who remains in the country and refuses to serve in the armed forces in time of war is prosecuted under our laws, and if found guilty he is compelled to serve a term in the penitentiary. Under the terms of the Selective Service Act an American citizen who refuses to serve when he is called upon to do so is likewise subject to a prison term. Certainly those who, having enjoyed the advantages of living in the United States, were unwilling to serve their country or subject themselves to the Selective Service Act, should be penalized in some measure. This bill would deprive such persons as are citizens of the United States of their citizenship, and, in the case of aliens, would forever bar them from admission into the United States. Any American citizen who is convicted of violating the Selective Service Act loses his citizenship. This bill would merely impose a similar penalty on those who are not subject to the jurisdiction of our courts, the penalty being the same as would result in the case of those who are subject to the jurisdiction of our courts.” 90 Cong. Rec. 7628-7629.

 Section 349 (a) (10) did add a presumption that failure to comply with any provision of the compulsory service laws of the United States means that the departure from or absence from the United States is for the purpose of avoiding military service. See pp. 215-219, infra.

 Trop v. Dulles, 356 U. S., at 94.

 I cannot suppose that the Court today is saying that Congress can impose denationalization without the safeguards of a criminal trial for conduct which is unexceptionable — like marrying an alien— or relatively innocuous — like voting in a foreign election — but that Congress cannot do so for conduct which is reprehensible.

 See III Moore, Digest of International Law (1906), §§ 434, 436-438, 440; Tsiang, The Question of Expatriation in America- Prior to 1907 (1942), 44-55, 71-72, 78-84.

 “The Congress shall have Power ....
“To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
“To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
“To provide and maintain a Navy;
“To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
“To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.” Art. I, § 8, els. 11,12,13,14,18.

 McFarland v. American Sugar Rfg. Co., 241 U. S. 79, 86; Western & Atlantic R. Co. v. Henderson, 279 U. S. 639, 642; Morrison v. California, 291 U. S. 82, 90. See Bailey v. Alabama, 219 U. S. 219, 239; Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co., 220 U. S. 61, 81.

 The United States Consul said, “Without evidence to the contrary, the consular officer has no reason to doubt Dr. Cort’s statements made in the attached affidavit which purports to answer the charge that he departed from and remained outside the jurisdiction of the United States for the purpose of evading or avoiding training and service in the armed forces of the United States.”

 Ng Fung Ho v. White, 259 U. S. 276; Kessler v. Strecker, 307' U. S. 22, 35; Frank v. Rogers, 102 U. S. App. D. C. 367, 253 F. 2d 889.