Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez

Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 10–11, 1961 Reargued December 4–5, 1962 Decided February 18, 1963
Full case name	Robert F. Kennedy, Attorney General v. Francisco Mendoza-Martinez
Citations	372 U.S. 144 (more) 83 S. Ct. 554; 9 L. Ed. 2d 644; 1963 U.S. LEXIS 2095
Argument	Oral argument
Reargument	Reargument
Court membership
Case opinions
Majority	Goldberg, joined by Warren, Black, Douglas, Brennan
Concurrence	Brennan
Dissent	Harlan, joined by Clark
Dissent	Stewart, joined by White

Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, 372 U.S. 144 (1963), was a Supreme Court of the United States case in which the Court amended United States nationality law with respect to draft evasion.

Francisco Mendoza-Martinez (a natural-born United States citizen) confessed to the court that he had moved to Mexico (where he also had citizenship status) in 1942 for the purpose of evading the responsibilities of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 (for which he served a year in prison). After his release from prison, Mendoza-Martinez was ordered deported on the grounds that he was not a US citizen (part of the Selective Training and Service Act, as amended by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, stripped draft dodgers of their citizenship).

Mendoza-Martinez charged that the penalties prescribed by Section 401(j) of the Selective Training and Service Act and by Section 349(a)(10) of the Immigration and Nationality Act were in violation of the due process protections granted by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The case, heard jointly with Rusk v. Cort, was appealed to the Supreme Court by United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.