Italy ruling that stripped millions of their right to citizenship is scrutinized by its supreme court

(CNN) — The Italian diaspora continued the fight against the government’s restrictions on citizenship by descent this week, as three cases were scrutinized by Italy’s supreme court.

On Tuesday, the Corte di Cassazione, Italy’s highest court, met to evaluate citizenship restrictions for descendants of Italian citizens born abroad that were imposed by the government in October 2024.

The so-called ‘minor issue,’ introduced via a government circular, preceded the controversial March 2025 law change which cut citizenship by descent to two generations and effectively banned dual citizenship for Italians abroad.

It stipulated that if a parent of an Italian child born abroad naturalized while their children were still underage, that would “cut” the line of descent — unless it would otherwise render the child stateless.

The rule immediately disqualified Italo-descendants in countries such as the US, that grant citizenship to those born in the national territory. The sudden implementation, with no provision made for those whose citizenship requests were already in progress, led to complex situations for those who had already moved to Italy.

Now, the United Sections civil panel of the Corte di Cassazione, has begun an evaluation of whether the government’s policy change was legal. While the hearing was unrelated to the sweeping restrictions, lawyers hope a ruling on the “minor issue” could open the door for challenges to the 2025 law.

Americans in court

The Cassazione judges examined three cases of citizenship by descent which had been rejected at initial trial and subsequent appeal.

These involved two American families who traced their ancestry back three and four generations respectively. The third case was a Venezuelan whose Italian mother had naturalized when he was 10 years old. The Venezuelan plaintiff’s brother had already been granted citizenship by descent before the “minor issue” hit, leading to a discrepancy in the legal status between siblings.

The Procuratore Generale — a post which advises the Cassazione judges — also gave her legal interpretation, which was in favor of the plaintiffs, against the government restrictions.

Although the cases heard preceded the 2025 law change, lawyers for the plaintiffs were hopeful that the Procuratore Generale’s legal evaluation — which emphasized that citizenship cannot be lost involuntarily — could bode well for future challenges to the March 2025 law, which stripped millions of the right to recognition.

“It was important that she said that citizenship can only be lost by a voluntary act,” said Monica Restanio, attorney for the Venezuelan family.

The attorney for the American plaintiffs, Marco Mellone, explicitly asked the court to rule on whether citizenship is a permanent right acquired at birth, in their judgment. Should they do so, that would give an avenue for the lower courts to disregard the 2025 citizenship restrictions.

Speaking after the hearing, Mellone said he was “absolutely confident” that the court would rule the “minor issue” illegal, based on previous case law.

The Cassazione has intervened in citizenship law just twice in the 21st century, he added. Each time, it retroactively re-established citizenship for those who had lost it involuntarily.

A legal minefield

If the Cassazione rules in favor of the plaintiffs on the grounds that citizenship is acquired at birth, it could open the door for a judicial dismantling of Italy’s controversial citizenship law, which was introduced by emergency decree on March 28, 2025.

Regional judges have already referred Law 74/2025, as it is known, to the Constitutional Court, which rules on perceived infringements of the Italian Constitution. In the first of four hearings, held in March, the court ruled in favor of the government, though it has yet to issue the legal reasoning for doing so. The next three challenges will be heard on June 9. Mellone said he is “not so confident” about that hearing.

If the two top courts issue conflicting rulings, those seeking citizenship could be forced to sue the government for recognition rather than going the traditional route of applying through consulates.

‘Holding our breath’

Meanwhile, those in the diaspora who hope to regain the right to citizenship were on tenterhooks for the verdict. “We’re holding our breath,” said Jacqueline Matwick, whose family moved to Italy and was in the process of requesting citizenship when the ‘minor issue’ disqualified them. “I am really hoping the interpretation gets reversed — both for people with pending applications and for people like us who made irreversible life changes based on the old legal interpretation.”

Karen Bonadio, a third-generation Italian-American, flew from San Diego to Rome to attend the hearing, sporting a photo of her as a child with her great-grandfather, who had moved to New York State from Basilicata in southern Italy. Bonadio had planned to move to Italy once she had her citizenship recognized, but is now barred by the new legislation. “I came because it means so much to me,” she said.

At the same time, as the government slammed the door on the diaspora, Italy’s birth rate in 2025 dropped to a new low, according to figures released on March 31 by ISTAT, the national statistics institute. The average number of children per woman in Italy is now 1.14, down from 1.18 in 2024, while in Sardinia, the fertility rate has remained below one child per woman for the last six years. The country now has the lowest number of “young people” in the European Union and the highest number of over-65s, according to ISTAT, which cited Italy’s “long-standing decline in fertility.” One in eight 2025 births were to foreign nationals.

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