Cult-Induced Renunciation of United States Citizenship

The U.S. State Department instructs consular officers about how to treat “cult members [who] wish to relinquish U.S. nationality.” (7 FAM 1296). Yes, that’s a thing.

The Chairman of the State Department’s Board of Appellate Review, Alan G. James, wrote this 1991 article in the San Diego Law Review: “Cult-Induced Renunciation of United States Citizenship: The Involuntary Expatriation of Black Hebrews.” Here’s the abstract:

In the seventeen years from 1973 to 1990, approximately 400 United States citizens, members of a small, obscure religious cult known as the Original African Hebrew Israelite Nation of Jerusalem (formerly Black Hebrews), or, more commonly, the Hebrew Israelite Community, renounced their United States nationality in Israel. Most, if not all, of this unusually large class of renunciants surrendered their United States citizenship at the behest of the leadership of the Community. Fifteen members of this group successfully appealed to the Board of Appellate Review of the Department of State from the Department’s decision that they expatriated themselves. Most of the rest have had their citizenship restored by the Department of State pursuant to a policy decision which recognized the inherently involuntary character of renunciations made at the behest of the leadership of the Community.