Law Review Article Calls for Five-Year Limit on Civil Denaturalization

In a recently published essay, Cassandra Burke Robertson and a co-author examine the expanding use of civil denaturalization as a bipartisan punitive tool. They note that the Trump Administration elevated the practice to a top enforcement priority, encouraging prosecutors to pursue every viable case. The authors challenge the widely accepted notion that no statute of limitations applies, citing the Supreme Court’s Kokesh v. SEC ruling and the structure of 28 U.S.C. § 2462.

Their analysis proposes that Congress’s default five-year limitation should govern civil denaturalization, preserving the ability to address clear fraud while preventing indefinite vulnerability. By imposing a time bar, the proposal aims to protect the political participation of more than twenty-three million naturalized citizens.