The court on Monday declined to hear a complaint from Hood Muthan, who was born in 1994 in New Jersey, but did not comment further on the decision.
Muthana’s father was a diplomat from Yemen. She grew up near Birmingham, Alabama. Muthana left the United States in 2014 to join the Islamic State.
During her absence, the US government ruled that she was not a US citizen and revoked her passport, stating that her father was a diplomat at the time of her birth. Her family went to court to get her back in the United States.
In 2019, a federal judge upheld the government’s decision, despite the fact that Muthana was born in the United States.
Children of diplomats are not eligible for U.S. citizenship immediately after birth. However, family lawyers claimed that at the time of Muthana’s birth, her father was no longer considered a diplomat, making Muthan automatically a citizen.
Muthana surrendered to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces when the Islamic State lost its position in Iraq and Syria. She said she regretted her decision to join a terrorist group and wanted to return to the United States with her son, who was born to her from an Islamic State fighter.
Her current location is unclear.
