What does allegiance mean?

Allegiance means loyalty and devotion to one's country, including the obligation to support and defend its constitution, obey its laws, and place its interests above those of any foreign power. The English word descends from the Latin alligare meaning to bind, and traditionally referred to the personal bond between a subject and a sovereign in feudal Europe. American allegiance was reframed during the Revolution from loyalty to a king to loyalty to a constitutional order.

The Constitution itself uses the concept in several places. Article III Section 3 defines treason as levying War against the United States, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort, restating the breach of allegiance in colonial English law. Article VI requires that all Senators and Representatives, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified on July 9, 1868, defines U.S. citizens as all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, with the jurisdictional phrase tied to allegiance.

The Naturalization Oath of Allegiance prescribed by 8 U.S.C. § 1448 requires applicants to swear allegiance to the Constitution and laws of the United States and to renounce prior allegiance to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty. Allegiance is not citizenship in itself, but it is the substantive duty that citizenship entails.

American allegiance has unusual features. First, it is to the Constitution rather than to a person or to an ethnic identity, a point President Theodore Roosevelt emphasized in his 1894 essay True Americanism: there is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. Second, it is compatible with dual citizenship, since the United States generally recognizes that other countries may also claim allegiance from the same individual under cases such as Kawakita v. United States (1952). Third, it cannot be involuntarily revoked under Afroyim v. Rusk (1967), which requires specific intent to relinquish before the State Department may treat citizenship as ended. Fourth, it can be expressed quietly through ordinary lawful conduct, voting, paying taxes, and obeying laws, or actively through public service, military service, jury service, and political participation.

Officeholders take additional oaths to support the Constitution under Article VI and various federal and state laws. Naturalization candidates declare their allegiance formally at the Oath of Allegiance ceremony, the moment they become U.S. citizens.