Eichhorst v. Lindsey

• Decision Date: 05 December 1913
• Docket Number: 933.
• Citation: 209 F. 708
• Parties: EICHHORST v. LINDSEY, District Court Clerk.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Pennsylvania

209 F. 708

EICHHORST v. LINDSEY, District Court Clerk.

No. 933.

United States District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania.

December 5, 1913

Samuel J. Horvitz, of Pittsburgh, Pa., for petitioner.

ORR District Judge.

Petitioner is a resident alien, who declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States on December 8, 1905, in accordance with the provisions of law then in force. On September 30, 1913, he appeared in the office of the clerk of this court and sought leave to file his petition for naturalization. The clerk refused to permit such petition to be filed, because he was advised of an objection by the Commissioner of Naturalization that, inasmuch as more than seven years had elapsed, such declaration of intention was insufficient to support a petition for naturalization under the Naturalization Act of June 29, 1906, and its various supplements. The petition for mandamus and the answer of the clerk setting up the foregoing facts raise but a single question: Is the act of June 29, 1906, retroactive?

The second paragraph of section 4, which prescribes the manner in which an alien may be admitted to citizenship, begins with this language:

'Not less than two years nor more than seven years after he has made such declaration of intention he shall make and file in duplicate, a petition in writing'

-- being the petition for naturalization. That provision gives rise to the present controversy. It, however, should not control the meaning of other portions of the act, if that meaning is equally clear. The words 'such declaration of intention,' found in the above quotation, refer to the declaration of intention provided for in the immediately preceding paragraph of said section 4. Turning thence, we find specific provisions as to the manner in which such declaration of intention shall be made, before whom it shall be made, when it may be made, and what it shall contain in detail, with the proviso:

'Provided, however, that no alien who, in conformity with the law in force at the date of his declaration, has declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States shall be required to renew such declaration.'

That proviso seems to control the meaning of the words heretofore quoted from the second paragraph, because the word 'such' in the latter can have its ordinary meaning, viz., 'like what has been said.'

Other portions of the act throw light on the question. Another portion of the second paragraph of section 4 requires the petitioner for naturalization to sign his petition in his own handwriting, yet has this proviso:

'Provided, that if he

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