Luzvisaminda Ablang v. Janet Reno, Attorney General

I

United States Attorney General Janet Reno and Secretary of State Warren Christopher appeal the district court’s award of summary judgment to Luzvisaminda Ablang in her action challenging the constitutionality of section 205 of the Nationality Act of 1940, 54 Stat. 1137 , and seeking a declaratory judgment that she is a United States citizen. We reverse the district court’s decision and remand.

II

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The facts of this ease are undisputed. Luzvisaminda Ablang was bom out of wedlock in the Philippines on June 8, 1946, to a Filipino mother and a United States citizen father stationed in the Philippines during World War II. Her father, Walter Simmer-son, left the Philippines before she was born. Lacking resources, Ablang’s mother gave her shortly after birth to another family, which raised but never legally adopted her. Ab-lang was unaware of her true parentage until her natural mother came to see her some time after her graduation from high school. Her mother informed her that her father was a United States citizen, whom she believed to be deceased. In 1981, Ablang nonetheless wrote to her father at an old address provided by her mother. He responded,…