United States ex rel. Knauff v. Shaughnessy, Acting District Director of Immigration and Naturalization (338 U.S. 537)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 16, 1950 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 338 U.S. 537 · 70 S. Ct. 309
- Decided
- January 16, 1950
- Term
- October Term 1949
- Vote
- 4–3
- Majority author
- Justice Minton
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Minton delivered the opinion of the Court. May the United States exclude without hearing, solely upon a finding by the Attorney General that her admission would be prejudicial to the interests of the United States, the alien wife of a citizen who had served honorably in the armed forces of the United States during World War II? The District Court for the Southern District of New York held that it could, and the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed. 173 F. 2d 599. We granted certiorari to examine the question especially in the light of the War Brides Act of December 28, 1945. 336 U. S. 966. Petitioner was born in Germany in 1915. She left Germany and went to Czechoslovakia during the Hitler regime. There she was married and divorced. She went to England in 1939 as a refugee. Thereafter she served with the Royal Air Force efficiently and honorably from January 1, 1943, until May 30, 1946. She then secured civilian employment with the War Department of the United States in Germany. Her work was rated “very good” and “excellent.” On February 28, 1948, with the permission of the Commanding General at Frankfurt, Germany, she married Kurt W. Knauff, a naturalized citizen of the United States. He is an honorably discharged United States Army veteran of World War II. He is, as he was at the time of his marriage, a civilian employee of the United States Army at…
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