Abstract
Some births in the United States—though it is unknown how many—go unregistered. Without documentation proving the facts of their births, people with unregistered births are often unable to prove their identity or entitlement to citizenship later in life. Although birth registration is not a condition of citizenship in the Fourteenth Amendment, unregistered individuals are excluded from access to other forms of documentation, employment, and government benefits. State laws allow adults to register their births through delayed birth registration processes in some circumstances and vary significantly across jurisdictions. As a result, birth registration processes present a novel model of federalism: state law impacts whether individuals can document the facts of their birth, and recognition of a person’s U.S. citizenship requires both state and federal governments to agree about the individual’s facts of birth. Birth registration processes also demonstrate that statelessness in the United States can include those entitled to citizenship because of birth in the United States but whose claims the U.S. government does not recognize for lack of documentation of the facts of birth.
Recommended Citation
Fisher, Betsy L.
(2024)
"Citizenship, Federalism, and Delayed Birth Registration in the United States,"
Akron Law Review: Vol. 57:
Iss.
1, Article 2.
Available at:
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/akronlawreview/vol57/iss1/2