Expatriation, or denaturalization, is defined as "to send into exile", and is synonymous with banishment. Trop v. Dulles [356 U.S. 86 (1958)] has become a landmark case involving the expatriation of a U.S. soldier during World War II, and has subsequently had great impact on all other Supreme Court cases that are argued on the basis of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. To begin, the background of the case and the opinions of the Justices, consenting and dissenting, must be analyzed. Then we shall investigate the history of the act of denaturalization and the effect Trop v. Dulles has had on other Supreme Court cases involving it, and the Eighth Amendment. Finally, we will discuss the Patriot Act II, a future bill that could be passed by Congress as early as this year, and how Trop v. Dulles continues to influence politics by calling into question this bill's constitutionality. .
In 1944, the petitioner was a private in the U.S. Army. On May 22, he escaped from Casablanca, where he was being detained for an unrelated breach of discipline. Military authorities arrested him less than a day later and subsequently court-martialed him with a dishonorable discharge. In 1952, he applied for a passport, but he was denied on the ground that he was not a citizen of the United States of America under Section 401(g) of the Nationality Act of 1940, as amended; "he has lost his citizenship due to his conviction and dishonorable discharge for wartime desertion" . Based on a Civil War statute, Section 401(g) was created in 1865 to attempt to curb the problem of Union desertions. The case in question was decided on a vote of 5-4, with the decision in favor of Trop, and the loss of nationality resulting from a court martial following conviction of desertion, article 401(g) of the Nationality Act of 1940, was declared unconstitutional.
Chief Justice Warren, joined by Justices Black, Douglas, and Whittaker, concluded for the majority that citizenship is not subject to the general powers of the National Government and therefore cannot be divested in the exercise of the powers.