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Fedorenko v. United States

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Fedorenko v. United States
Argued October 15, 1980
Decided January 21, 1981
Full case nameFeodor Fedorenko v. United States
Citations449 U.S. 490 (more)
101 S. Ct. 737; 66 L. Ed. 2d 686
Case history
PriorCertiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Holding
As a person who had assisted the enemy in persecuting civilians, Fedorenko's visa was illegally procured and therefore his citizenship must be revoked under § 340(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Warren E. Burger
Associate Justices
William J. Brennan Jr. · Potter Stewart
Byron White · Thurgood Marshall
Harry Blackmun · Lewis F. Powell Jr.
William Rehnquist · John P. Stevens
Case opinions
MajorityMarshall, joined by Brennan, Stewart, Powell, Rehnquist
ConcurrenceBurger
ConcurrenceBlackmun
DissentWhite
DissentStevens

Fedorenko v. United States, 449 U.S. 490 (1981), was a United States Supreme Court case which held that people who assisted in Nazi persecutions, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, were not eligible for visas to enter the United States, and thus could not legally obtain United States citizenship. It has been used as an important precedent in many denaturalization cases against former Nazis.

Following the ruling, the defendant, Feodor Fedorenko, was deported to the Soviet Union. He was tried for treason, war crimes, and collaborationism for working in Treblinka extermination camp. Fedorenko was sentenced to death in 1986, and executed in 1987.

See also

Further reading

  • Dienstag, Abbe L. (1982), "Fedorenko v. United States: War Crimes, the Defense of Duress, and American Nationality Law", Columbia Law Review, 82 (1): 120–183, doi:10.2307/1122241, JSTOR 1122241.