Yes that was my understanding of the situation. Feel free to explain why I’m wrong, that’s why I asked the question. Even the term “foreign national” is something I’m not familiar with and it’s not entirely clear whether you would even use it in some of the cases cited in the article considering that one individual is self described as living overseas when he renounced his citizenship.
A foreign national is anyone that is a citizen of a foreign nation. If an American is renouncing their US citizenship, they must already have gained citizenship of another nation, which makes them a foreign national once they no longer have US citizenship.
If they had no legal rights in the United States, there would be zero tourism or business travel from foreigners to the US because any American could do whatever they want to that foreign person (steal from them, con them, murder them, you name it) without fear of legal repercussions.
So yes, foreigners have the right to use American courts if the injustice they are alleging happened on American soil.
I have a few weird questions if you have time to answer them. How does it work in the case where the person was outside of the USA at the time, seeing as they were not on USA “soil” at the time? It’s just that one of the parties (in this case the federal government) has to be on USA soil?
And how does that work if, say, you’re standing on the USA side of the Mexican border and you throw a brick at someone on the Mexican side? Could the Mexican citizen in this case file a lawsuit in a USA court?
Court jurisdiction can become a really complicated question, but citizenship of the parties has nothing to do with it. If a court has jurisdiction, doesn’t matter if the plaintiffs reside on Mars.
The law and courts apply to anyone with standing. Have you not read news stories when illegal immigrants are challenging their detention? Or Guantanamo prisoners petitioning the court that they shouldn’t be tortured? This is the same thing.
You say inhabitants but it’s clear from the article that at least some of the litigants were not inhabiting USA territory. And I thought the entire point of setting up Guantanamo Bay was that it “technically” wasn’t US soil therefore they are not afforded the same protections.
You are right; it’s not inhabitants. It’s anyone with standing.
I edited my reply for clarity.
French citizens who are rear ended by an American during their vacation, for example, but must return home the next day, still have screws to the courts.
As one would expect.
The location of a person when they file a lawsuit has no bearing on its validity.
I know that if you are a US citizen in France a lot of bank will refuse to open a bank account for you.
It’s due to the fact that they need to report to the IRS the banking informations of all US citizen and they just don’t want to spend any money on that.
Plus even if you are not taxed you still have to declare to the IRS your revenues every year.
Some people are US citizen without every putting a feet in the US, I totally understand that they would want to renounce their citizenship.
Getting pretty deep in the weeds so I may be wrong.
But I believe in that case it’s not a voluntary renouncement, so it may be treated differently.
But still, you gotta be pretty wealthy to owe any money. And with the state of America, the vast amount of Americans are more deserving of sympathy and they’re the ones we should be focusing on helping.
They just don’t have the money for lawyers, PR campaigns, political donations, or the contacts of journalists as the wealthy people do.
The rich have other ways to avoid paying tax. Hell, arguably the US is a tax haven for the rich, compared to many many countries. IRC Trump paid no tax 10/15 years due to reported losses. I suspect this was plain old tax avoidance. People like Bezos, Musk or Buffet pay almost nothing.
For example, when I worked at a European bank, we would often refuse US citizens anything but the basics. The IRS and US government is notoriously over-zealous and the US is one the few countries which applies double taxation. Many banks therefore avoid American passport holders like the plague. There are stories of people having their bank accounts summararily closed or frozen:
Often these were people who hadn’t been in the US since childhood or at all, earned and paid (up to 10x higher) taxes in Europe than they ever would in the US, but still got fucked over by the IRS and a country they would never visit (again). The US is one of the only countries in the world that does double taxation.
These weren’t rich people. Almost all of them were middle-class. Plenty were unemployed or earning less than 20k a year.
For middle-class people, it’s especially problematic come pension time, when time came for the payout of a European pension plan or the sale of the family home. Stuff they’d already paid tax on to the country they’d lived in most of their lives, but are forced to give America ‘its share’ despite getting less than nothing in return.
Plenty of them are also unable to vote in the US, because they never had a last residence, voting is a state matter, and it’s made needlessly complicated for foreign residents. Taxation without representation.
How can you file a lawsuit in a country you are not a citizen of, against a country you are not a citizen of? Real question.
Do you really think foreign nationals aren’t afforded legal rights within the United States? Real question.
Yes that was my understanding of the situation. Feel free to explain why I’m wrong, that’s why I asked the question. Even the term “foreign national” is something I’m not familiar with and it’s not entirely clear whether you would even use it in some of the cases cited in the article considering that one individual is self described as living overseas when he renounced his citizenship.
A foreign national is anyone that is a citizen of a foreign nation. If an American is renouncing their US citizenship, they must already have gained citizenship of another nation, which makes them a foreign national once they no longer have US citizenship.
If they had no legal rights in the United States, there would be zero tourism or business travel from foreigners to the US because any American could do whatever they want to that foreign person (steal from them, con them, murder them, you name it) without fear of legal repercussions.
So yes, foreigners have the right to use American courts if the injustice they are alleging happened on American soil.
Yes that makes sense now, thank you!
I have a few weird questions if you have time to answer them. How does it work in the case where the person was outside of the USA at the time, seeing as they were not on USA “soil” at the time? It’s just that one of the parties (in this case the federal government) has to be on USA soil?
And how does that work if, say, you’re standing on the USA side of the Mexican border and you throw a brick at someone on the Mexican side? Could the Mexican citizen in this case file a lawsuit in a USA court?
Court jurisdiction can become a really complicated question, but citizenship of the parties has nothing to do with it. If a court has jurisdiction, doesn’t matter if the plaintiffs reside on Mars.
The law and courts apply to anyone with standing. Have you not read news stories when illegal immigrants are challenging their detention? Or Guantanamo prisoners petitioning the court that they shouldn’t be tortured? This is the same thing.
You say inhabitants but it’s clear from the article that at least some of the litigants were not inhabiting USA territory. And I thought the entire point of setting up Guantanamo Bay was that it “technically” wasn’t US soil therefore they are not afforded the same protections.
You are right; it’s not inhabitants. It’s anyone with standing.
I edited my reply for clarity.
French citizens who are rear ended by an American during their vacation, for example, but must return home the next day, still have screws to the courts.
As one would expect.
The location of a person when they file a lawsuit has no bearing on its validity.
No other system would make sense.
I imagine it starts with hiring a lawyer, the same as if you’re a citizen.
The court has jurisdiction regardless of what country the plaintiffs are from.
The only people renouncing US citizenship are rich people because the US will still tax them.
The payment to renounce it is like a one time fee to not be taxed
I know that if you are a US citizen in France a lot of bank will refuse to open a bank account for you.
It’s due to the fact that they need to report to the IRS the banking informations of all US citizen and they just don’t want to spend any money on that.
Plus even if you are not taxed you still have to declare to the IRS your revenues every year.
Some people are US citizen without every putting a feet in the US, I totally understand that they would want to renounce their citizenship.
That’s probably most of them- but there’s other situations as well. Some countries require you renounce other citizenships to gain theirs.
Getting pretty deep in the weeds so I may be wrong.
But I believe in that case it’s not a voluntary renouncement, so it may be treated differently.
But still, you gotta be pretty wealthy to owe any money. And with the state of America, the vast amount of Americans are more deserving of sympathy and they’re the ones we should be focusing on helping.
They just don’t have the money for lawyers, PR campaigns, political donations, or the contacts of journalists as the wealthy people do.
Not true.
The rich have other ways to avoid paying tax. Hell, arguably the US is a tax haven for the rich, compared to many many countries. IRC Trump paid no tax 10/15 years due to reported losses. I suspect this was plain old tax avoidance. People like Bezos, Musk or Buffet pay almost nothing.
For example, when I worked at a European bank, we would often refuse US citizens anything but the basics. The IRS and US government is notoriously over-zealous and the US is one the few countries which applies double taxation. Many banks therefore avoid American passport holders like the plague. There are stories of people having their bank accounts summararily closed or frozen:
https://www.thelocal.de/20210914/why-are-americans-being-turned-away-from-german-banks
Often these were people who hadn’t been in the US since childhood or at all, earned and paid (up to 10x higher) taxes in Europe than they ever would in the US, but still got fucked over by the IRS and a country they would never visit (again). The US is one of the only countries in the world that does double taxation.
These weren’t rich people. Almost all of them were middle-class. Plenty were unemployed or earning less than 20k a year.
For middle-class people, it’s especially problematic come pension time, when time came for the payout of a European pension plan or the sale of the family home. Stuff they’d already paid tax on to the country they’d lived in most of their lives, but are forced to give America ‘its share’ despite getting less than nothing in return.
Plenty of them are also unable to vote in the US, because they never had a last residence, voting is a state matter, and it’s made needlessly complicated for foreign residents. Taxation without representation.
I was thinking the same thing.