Introduction:
In a judgment published on June 29, 2026, the Court of Palermo recognized Italian citizenship jure sanguinis in a case combining two contested obstacles under the post-Tajani framework: maternal-line transmission for a child born before 1948 (the "1948 Rule"), and an ancestor's forced, involuntary naturalization abroad. The applicant, a U.S.-based, second-generation descendant, traced her line to her grandmother, an Italian citizen at birth in a town in the province of Palermo in the early 1900s. Upon emigrating to the U.S. and marrying, the grandmother was automatically and involuntarily stripped of her Italian citizenship under then-applicable U.S. law on women's nationality. Her daughter, the applicant's mother, was born in the U.S. in the late 1910s, before the January 1, 1948 cutoff, meaning consular authorities would have refused, per settled practice, to recognize maternal-line transmission to her at all. The petition was filed in spring 2026, once the Tajani Decree (D.L. 36/2025, converted by L. 74/2025) was already in force.
Outcome:
The Court fully upheld the petition, declaring the applicant an Italian citizen and ordering the Ministry of the Interior to proceed with the relevant civil status registrations. The key issue was the grandmother's American naturalization following her marriage. The Court characterized this naturalization as involuntary and therefore constitutionally unlawful, citing Constitutional Court ruling no. 87/1975 and Court of Cassation, United Sections, ruling no. 4466/2009. As a result, the grandmother was deemed to have retained exclusively Italian citizenship until her death, bringing the case within the exception under letter c) of Article 1 of Decree-Law 36/2025 (a first- or second-degree ancestor holding exclusively Italian citizenship). The Court also cited Constitutional Court ruling no. 63/2026, which upheld the legitimacy of the Tajani Decree's restrictions. Litigation costs were left to the applicant.
Challenge:
The case had two hurdles. First, since the petition was filed after March 27, 2025, the ordinary transitional pathways were unavailable, the applicant had to fit within one of the law's substantive exceptions. Second, the grandmother's formal loss of Italian citizenship through marriage-based naturalization had to be shown to be legally ineffective, so she could still qualify as an ancestor holding exclusively Italian citizenship.
Action:
Since administrative recognition was unavailable, this being a case of maternal-line transmission to a descendant born before 1948, the applicant proceeded directly through judicial action. The Court verified the line of descent from the translated and apostilled documentation submitted, and found a valid interest in proceeding judicially given the consistent consular refusal to recognize maternal-line transmission for those born before 1948.
For the privacy of our clients, all names are fictional, and any identifying details in the judgements have been obscured.