West Virginia v. B. P. J. · ¶180

Some citizen fathers, of course, had knowledge of parenthood from the moment of their child’s birth. In this way, the classification did not fit them. Congress had accounted for those situations, however, by allowing fathers to take one of three “simple” procedural steps to secure citizenship for their children. Id., at 71; see id., at 63 (listing those steps as “legitimation, paternity oath, and court order of paternity”). As the Court explained, it was “mindful” of “the obligation” that the classification “impose[d]” on “a citizen father,” but it recognized that the burden was “minimal” and that “Congress ha[d] not erected inordinate and unnecessary hurdles” for a father to gain the same benefit for his children as a mother to whom he was similarly situated. Id., at 70–71. It was in that context that the Court upheld the sex classification, even though Congress’s “ultimate objective”…

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