The United States Supreme Court has ruled that American citizens do not have a constitutional right to guarantee their non-citizen spouses entry into the country.
Reuters reports that in a ruling on Friday, the Supreme Court said the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens are not violated when the government bars their non-citizen spouses from entering the country without explanation.
This indicates that marrying an American citizen to facilitate entry into the US is no longer guaranteed and the US government has a right to deny a visa or entry for the spouse of an American citizen who is trying to enter the country.
The court in a 6-3 decision, said Sandra Munoz, a U.S. citizen and civil rights lawyer, cannot challenge the U.S. Department of State’s denial of her El Salvadoran husband’s visa application after the agency waited three years to explain that it suspected him of being a gang member.
Munoz and her husband, who she married in 2010 and with whom she has a child, have been separated since 2015, according to court filings.
Visa denials are not reviewable in court unless the government violates an applicant’s constitutional rights in the process.
The Supreme Court on Friday rejected Munoz’s claim that the delay in explaining the denial violated her due process rights by interfering with her fundamental right to marry.
Her claim “involves more than marriage and more than spousal cohabitation — it includes the right to have her noncitizen husband enter (and remain in) the United States,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the court.
Munoz sued the State Department in 2017 after the agency declined to reconsider its earlier denial of her husband’s visa, and before it explained its determination.
A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled in 2021 that the State Department was not obligated to notify Munoz of its reasons for denying the application. The 9th Circuit in 2022 reversed, saying that Munoz could not effectively challenge the decision without being informed of its factual basis, which violated her due process rights.
But the Supreme Court on Friday said Munoz’s constitutional right to marry did not equate to a right to have her husband live with her in the United States.
