⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The D.C. Circuit hears Ali versus Rubio, a challenge to the revocation of an American passport. Ali was born in Yemen in nineteen seventy-nine to a naturalized United States citizen. He received a U.S. passport in nineteen ninety and renewed it twice. In twenty nineteen, the State Department reversed course. It concluded that his father had not accumulated the required ten years of physical presence in the United States before his birth. Citizenship alone was not enough: the law applicable to Ali also imposed that physical-presence requirement for passing citizenship to a child born abroad. The argument concerns how that history can be proved through old passport applications. Two evidence questions are different. Authentication asks whether a document is what the person offering it claims. Hearsay concerns an out-of-court statement offered to prove that its contents are true. Establishing that a record came from government files does not automatically resolve every hearsay objection to its contents. The ancient-documents exception permits statements in authenticated documents prepared before January first, nineteen ninety-eight. Double hearsay means one statement contains another person's statement; each layer generally needs its own exception. The translation question is whether an English record simply conveys the original speaker's words or adds another layer requiring separate justification. The parties disagree about how those rules apply here. You will also hear about the residual exception. It requires sufficient guarantees of trustworthiness, greater value in proving the point than other evidence reasonably obtainable, and reasonable notice. Good cause can excuse late notice, not eliminate it. The judges will consider the evidentiary questions alongside the parties' disagreement over who must prove citizenship or its absence. Ali relies on his previously issued passport as initial evidence of his claim; the government contends the physical-presence requirement was not met.

Abdo Ali v. Marco Rubio (No. 25-5082) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, argued October 20, 2026.