16 - Commentary on Sessions v. Morales-Santana

Summary

The Sessions v. Morales-Santana decision was groundbreaking in prohibiting discrimination against nonmarital fathers. Perhaps because of the highly politicized immigration context, however, the decision was somewhat retrograde in its remedy. Tracy Thomas’s rewritten opinion adheres closely to the liberal feminist model of Justice Ginsburg’s original, but opts for the more just remedy of leveling up in terms of access to American citizenship. It also raises questions about the interaction between legislative and judicial power, the intertwined relationships of gender and race and marriage and parenthood, as well as the complex tradeoffs between equality and justice.