Fisher: Citizenship, Federalism, and Delayed Birth Registration 2024] C ITIZENSHIP, F EDERALISM, AND DELAYED BIRTH R EGISTRATION 67 eventually reached a settlement that allowed them to obtain social security numbers. 105 Likewise, Jamie Lanosga’s birth was not registered as a child. Without a birth certificate, she faced obstacles to participating in youth athletics tournaments, and she was unable to obtain a driver’s license. Unable to access student loans, she could not attend college. 106 Noah Boyce was raised on a Michigan farm, never attended school, and had no identification or documentation of his birth. 107 As an adult, he was able to register his birth using affidavits of personal knowledge of the facts of his birth. 108 A lawyer described unregistered births as “commonplace in rural, minority communities” across the south of the United States, noting: “I had one gentleman who carried around a social security check. It was his first sort of lump sum check when he started getting benefits. . . He carried it around for almost a year. He couldn’t cash it, because he didn’t have a bank account, because he didn’t have a photo ID, because he didn’t have a birth certificate.” 109 One particularly poignant Reddit post from an author whose birth was unregistered begged parents to register their children’s births, noting the difficulty that lack of registration caused the author. 110 These stories provide three insights. First, without birth registration, individuals faced significant forms of exclusion and hardship, 111 including the inability to obtain identification including driver’s licenses, 112 formal 105. Brett Barrouquere, Sisters Settle over Social Security Cards, B LUE R IDGE NOW (Nov. 23, 2011), https://www.blueridgenow.com/story/news/2011/11/23/sisters-settle-suit-over-social security-cards/28285148007/ [https://perma.cc/U3ZB-4HZW]. 106. Barbara Cotter, Born in the USA; Without a Shred of Proof, THE GAZETTE (Sept. 30, 2011), https://gazette.com/news/born-in-the-usa-without-a-shred-of-proof/articl e_a9a684 fd-d024-531d 9b17-2282578cda4a.html [https://perma.cc/XK4N-V6UY]. 107. The Boy Who Doesn’t Exist, DAILY MAIL (June 24, 2013, 8:53 AM), https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2346977/Noah-Boyce-raised-grid-birthday-19.html [https://perma.cc/LQ2N-PVCU]. 108. Id. 109. Diekneite & Garrison, supra note 52. 110. R EDDIT, Dear Parents: Do Not Have a Off-the-Grid Baby,https://www.reddit.com/r/self/ comments/fvjkgw/dear_parents_do_not_have_a_offthegrid_baby/ (last visited July 3, 2023), [https://perma.cc/YHH2-URLD]. 111. Jain, supra note 91, at 239 (calling on “agencies to scrutinize the legal framework and political conditions within which modern identity management systems are implemented to avoid perpetuating or expanding existing forms of exclusion.”); see id. at 273 (“As states undertake effort s to consolidate and strengthen their processes for identity management, individuals and groups who do not fall within the state’s political imaginary may either be systematically left out of documentation processes.”). 112. See RadioLab, supra note 2 (noting that Alecia Pennington could not obtain a driver’s license); Tucker v. New York City Dep’t of Health, 785 N.Y.S.2d 862, 863 (Sup. Ct. 2004) (noting Published by IdeaExchange@UAkron, 2025 19