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Such is the Supreme Court's reluctance to overturn an Act of Congress that in 28 years it has done so only eight times--nearly always on the ground of safeguarding individual rights. Last week the court cautiously did it again by voting 5 to 3 to throw out a federal statute that strips naturalized Americans of U.S. citizenship if they return to their native country for three or more years. The ruling evidently makes equally unenforceable a companion statute that has the same effect on naturalized Americans who live in any foreign country for five years.

Winner of last week's case was German-born Mrs. Angelika L. Schneider, who immigrated to the U.S. as a child in 1939, became a citizen in 1950 and graduated from Smith College in 1954. After marrying a German lawyer in 1956, Mrs. Schneider went to live in Cologne. On applying for a new U.S. passport three years later, she was turned down as no longer a U.S. citizen under Section 352 of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act. This ruling also split her four sons' nationalities, since two of them were born in Germany after the three-year limit. To make herself and all of her boys American, she appealed to the court.

Congress enacted the expatriation rules to avoid squabbles with other countries in behalf of naturalized Americans who "only claim citizenship when it suits their purpose." But the rules do not apply to native-born Americans, who can live abroad as long as they please, and it may well be that this disparity presumes for naturalized Americans a kind of second-class citizenship.

In his majority opinion last week, Justice William O. Douglas rejected "the impermissible assumption that naturalized citizens are less reliable and bear less allegiance to this country." Their rights and those of the native-born "are of the same dignity and are coexistent," said Douglas. "The only difference drawn by the Constitution is that only the 'natural-born' citizen is eligible to be President." In dissenting, Justice Tom C. Clark argued that Mrs. Schneider "wishes to retain her citizen ship on a stand-by basis for her own benefit in the event of trouble. There is no constitutional necessity for Congress to accede to her wish." The court majority disagreed. Along with Mrs. Schneider, 50,000 other ex-Americans (mostly living in Europe) may now seek restored U.S. citizenship, if not election to the presidency.

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