High court weighs in on citizenship rules, copyrights (The Grapes of Wrath)

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN) -- A Mexican-born man who contested a federal law on citizenship that treats men and women differently, has lost his appeal at the Supreme Court.

The justices split 4-4 on Monday to uphold the criminal conviction of Ruben Flores-Villar. When these rare ties occur, the lower court ruling is automatically upheld, but no national precedent is set.

At issue is whether his equal protection rights were violated by what he claimed was gender discrimination.

Flores-Villar was born in Mexico to an American father and Mexican mother. The couple never married and the child was brought to the San Diego, California area at age two and raised by his father and grandmother, both U.S. citizens.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/13/scotus.citizenship.copyrights/index.html

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Kagan recused herself from the Flores-Villar case because of her role as Obama administration solicitor general previously. The copyright case (further down this article) was regarding John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

Especially if he has lived here since he was 2.