Schneider v. Rusk - 372 U.S. 224 (1963)

U.S. Supreme Court

Schneider v. Rusk, 372 U.S. 224 (1963)

Schneider v. Rusk

No. 251

Decided February 18, 1963

372 U.S. 224

Syllabus

Petitioner sued in a Federal District Court for an injunction restraining enforcement of § 352(a)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which provides that a naturalized American citizen shall lose his nationality by

"having a continuous residence for three years in the territory of a foreign state of which he was formerly a national or in which the place of his birth is situated. . . ."

A single-judge District Court refused petitioner's request to convene a three-judge court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2282 and dismissed the action. The Court of Appeals affirmed.

Held: the constitutional question raised by petitioner's complaint was not plainly insubstantial; the single-judge District Court was powerless to dismiss the action on the merits; and a three-judge District Court should have been convened. Pp. 372 U. S. 224-225.

Judgment vacated and case remanded to District Court.