Five American Samoans and the Samoan Federation of America petitioned yesterday for the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to review a June decision by a three-judge panel that constitutional citizenship by birth on U.S. soil does not apply in U.S. territories. The panel held in Tuaua v. United Statesthat people born in the U.S. territory of American Samoa have no claim to birthright citizenship under the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. As a result, the United States government does not recognize them as citizens of any place. Under federal law they owe “permanent allegiance” to the United States yet are labeled with the inferior status of “non-citizen national.”