Page:Kerry v. Din.pdf/11

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Cite as: 576 U. S. ____ (2015)
9

Opinion of Scalia, J.

an aspect of the marital relationship. Even if our cases could be construed so broadly, the relevant question is not whether the asserted interest "is consistent with this Court’s substantive-due-process line of cases," but whether it is supported by "this Nation’s history and practice." Glucksberg, 521 U. S., at 723–724 (emphasis deleted). Even if we might "imply" a liberty interest in marriage generally speaking, that must give way when there is a tradition denying the specific application of that general interest. Thus, Glucksberg rejected a claimed liberty interest in "self-sovereignty" and "personal autonomy" that extended to assisted suicide when there was a longstanding tradition of outlawing the practice of suicide. Id., at 724, 727–728 (internal quotation marks omitted).

Here, a long practice of regulating spousal immigration precludes Din’s claim that the denial of Berashk’s visa application has deprived her of a fundamental liberty interest. Although immigration was effectively unregu­lated prior to 1875, as soon as Congress began legislating in this area it enacted a complicated web of regulations that erected serious impediments to a person’s ability to bring a spouse into the United States. See Abrams, What Makes the Family Special? 80 U. Chi. L. Rev. 7, 10–16 (2013).

Most strikingly, perhaps, the Expatriation Act of 1907 provided that "any American woman who marries a for­eigner shall take the nationality of her husband." Ch. 2534, 34 Stat. 1228. Thus, a woman in Din’s position not only lacked a liberty interest that might be affected by the Government’s disposition of her husband’s visa applica­tion, she lost her own rights as a citizen upon marriage. When Congress began to impose quotas on immigration by country of origin less than 15 years later, with the Immi­gration Act of 1921, it omitted fiances and husbands from the family relations eligible for preferred status in the allocation of quota spots. §2(d), 42 Stat. 6. Such relations