West Virginia v. B. P. J. · ¶179

Whether the fit between the means and the State’s interest is “‘exceedingly persuasive,’” id., at 533, also depends on the nature of the burdens imposed. The Court’s decision in Tuan Anh Nguyen v. INS, 533 U. S. 53 (2001), provides a helpful illustration. That case concerned a statute that classified based on sex: It allowed citizen mothers, but not citizen fathers, married to noncitizens to transmit U. S. citizenship at birth to their children born abroad. Id., at 56– 57. This Court upheld the differential treatment, concluding that it furthered the interest of ensuring a substantial “parent-child relationship” with a U. S. citizen before bestowing citizenship, given that mothers, by virtue of giving birth, had the potential for such a relationship and indeed likely had one. Id., at 68–69. For citizen fathers, by contrast, the knowledge of parenthood was not guaranteed “at the moment…

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