Fisher: Citizenship, Federalism, and Delayed Birth Registration
2024]
C ITIZENSHIP, F EDERALISM, AND DELAYED BIRTH R EGISTRATION
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III. BORN WITHOUT PROOF
The experience of Alecia Pennington shows that the U.S.
government does not recognize every person who, because of birth in U.S.
territory, is entitled to U.S. citizenship. The prevalence of birth
registration heightens the cost of exclusion for the few who lack it. 90 In
1986, a federal court pointed to
the vital nature of a birth certificate in modern times: without that slip
of paper, a person’s identity and legitimacy are at risk in a variety of
aspects. In one way or another, the right to vote, the right to enroll in
public schools, the right to participate in certain social programs, the
right to travel internationally, are all dependent on the production of a
birth certificate. A parent might well believe that a child whose birth
was not “officially” recorded would go through life as a faceless nonperson, substantially disadvantaged in terms of access to educational opportunities, employment, government programs, and the like. 91
Without reliable, national data sources on unregistered births, Part III.A draws
examples from case law, news media, and internet forums. It explores the many
forms of societal exclusion that unregistered individuals face. Part III.B explores
reasons that births may go unregistered.
A.
Societal Exclusion for Unregistered Individuals
This Section reviews the experiences of people whose births were
not registered during their early childhoods. These stories are based on
narratives in the public record, including news articles, case law in
petitions filed by individuals seeking delayed birth registration, and
internet forums such as Reddit.
Alecia Pennington was unable to obtain a driver’s license or social
security number. 92 Without a social security number, she could not obtain
90. June Gibbs Brown, Birth Certificate Fraud, DEP’T OF HEALTH AND HUM. S ERV., OFF. OF
INSPECTOR GEN., 6 OEI-07-99-00570 (Sept. 2000) (noting that birth certificates are “used extensively
for employment purposes, to obtain benefits or other documents (e.g., driver’s licenses, Social
Security cards, and passports)), to assist in determining eligibility for public assistance and other
benefits, to enroll children in school, and as proof of age eligibility for sports and other age-restricted
activities.”); Bogin-Farber, supra note 67, at 175–77 (“Over the last two decades, laws requiring
written proof of lawful immigration status have proliferated at the federal, state, and local levels.”).
See also Neha Jain, Manufacturing Statelessness, 116 AM. J. INT’L L. 237, 239 (2022) (urging
scholars and activists 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.”).
91. DeLeiris v. Scott, 642 F. Supp. 1552, 1565–66 (D.R.I. 1986).
92. RadioLab, supra note 2.
Published by IdeaExchange@UAkron, 2025
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