A Mexican-born man who contested a federal law on citizenship that treats men and women differently, has lost his appeal at the Supreme Court.
The justices split 4-4 on Monday to uphold the criminal conviction of Ruben Flores-Villar. When these rare ties occur, the lower court ruling is automatically upheld, but no national precedent is set.
At issue is whether his equal protection rights were violated by what he claimed was gender discrimination.
Flores-Villar was born in Mexico to an American father and Mexican mother. The couple never married and the child was brought to the San Diego, California area at age two and raised by his father and grandmother, both U.S. citizens.
As an adult he was convicted of smuggling marijuana and illegal entry, and after a prison term he was deported to Tijuana.
The man tried to avoid deportation by claiming he was a U.S. citizen. The case turned on a federal five-year residence requirement, after the age of 14, on U.S. male citizen fathers -- but not on U.S. citizen mothers -- before they may transmit citizenship to a child born out of wedlock abroad to a non-citizen.
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