Three additional scholars of constitutional law and legal history will be joining two others in filing ‘amici curiae’ (or friends of the court) briefs in the citizenship lawsuit appeal now pending before the federal court of appeal in Washington D.C.

The appeal is by five American Samoans, with local resident Leneuoti F. Tuaua as lead plaintiff. The plaintiffs want the federal court to recognize that because they were born in American Samoa, therefore they should be automatic U.S. citizens - which was denied by the lower court.

The appeal’s court in February this year granted a motion by professors Christina Duffy Ponsa and Gary S. Lawson, to file briefs as amici curiae. Yesterday the court was informed that three additional scholars — Professors Sanford V. Levinson, Bartholomew H. Sparrow and Andrew Kent — will join in filing amici curiae briefs “in support of neither party” in this case.

A motion filed with the court outlined background of the trio who are scholars of constitutional law and legal history. “Each of the additional scholars who will participate as amici curiae in this case has written or co-edited collected works on American territorial expansion and its constitutional implications, including on the Insular Cases,” the motion says.

It also says that attorney for plaintiffs has indicated that they consent to the participation of these additional scholars while counsel for defendants has indicated that they take no position on that participation.