Trabing v. United States

Citations

• 32 Ct. Cl. 440
• 1897 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 33
• 1800 WL 2116

Syllabus

<p>On the defendants’ Motion.</p> <p>The claimant’s father came to this country in 1863, the son being then 11 years of age. It does not appear that the father declared his intention or became a citizen, nor by competent evidence that he exercised the right of the franchise. In 1892 the claimant applied for naturalization and was naturalized.</p> <p>I.In Boyd v. Thayer (143 U. S., 135) it appeared that the father became a citizen and exercised the rights of a citizen by voting, and that the son on attaining his majority also exercised the right of a citizen by voting. The decision does not sustain a case otherwise similar to Boyd’s, but with those elements wanting.</p> <p>II.The Aet SO May, 1854 (10 Stat. L., 277) — the organic law of the Territory of Nebraska — required that the right of suffrage and of holding office should be exercised only by citizens and those who “declared on oath their intention to become sueh,” and had “ taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States.” Minority, which only excuses a minor from making a declaration, was not equivalent in Nebraska to an oath to support the Constitution.</p> <p>III.The fact that a foreign-born person holds office proves nothing. It is not the performance of a duty of citizenship, and an office may be held wrongfully without subjecting the person to pains and penalties like those for illegal voting.</p> <p>IY. A minor by the declaration of his parents acquires an inchoate status, but on attaining his majority he has an election and may repudiate the status, and his application for naturalization many years after he attained his majority negatives the presumption of an earlier election to become a.citizen.</p>