WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has turned down an appeal from American Samoans who said they should be considered U.S. citizens at birth.
The court’s action leaves in place a law adopted in 1900 that says persons born in American Samoa will be considered “nationals” who owe allegiance to the United States, but not citizens with the right to vote and hold public office.
A lawsuit brought by the Samoan Federation of America pointed to the 14th Amendment adopted after the Civil War, which declares that all persons “born or naturalized in the United States” shall be U.S. citizens.
But in the early 1900s, the Supreme Court ruled that people in the newly acquired U.S. territories were not entitled to all the constitutional rights of American citizens. Since then, Congress has determined the people of most territories, including Puerto Rico and Guam, are citizens at birth, but the same rights were not extended to Samoans.
Last year, the U.S. court of appeals for the District of Columbia said it is up to Congress, not the courts, to change the legal status of American Samoans. By denying the appeal Monday in Tuaua v. United States, the justices said they would not review that conclusion.
Separately Monday, the court left in place the Obama administration’s anti-pollution rules that require power plants to sharply restrict emissions of mercury and other toxic chemicals.
The justices turned away an appeal from Michigan and 19 other Republican-led states that contended the rules were too costly and illegal.
Last year, Justice Antonin Scalia spoke for a 5-4 ruling that rebuked the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to conduct a cost-benefit analysis before publishing the long-delayed rules. That decision, however, stopped short of striking down the new rules that had just taken effect.
Earlier this year, the EPA published its cost-benefit analysis. Michigan’s attorney general appealed, arguing the rules should be put on hold while further legal challenges go forward.
But the court said Monday it would not hear the latest appeal in Michigan v. EPA.
“Today, millions of American families and children can breathe easier knowing that these life-saving limits on toxic pollution are intact,” said Vickie Patton, general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund.