The Italian Supreme Court of Cassation is currently reviewing a pivotal legal challenge that could determine the citizenship status of thousands of foreign nationals of Italian descent. The case centers on the retroactivity of a 2025 legislative amendment introduced by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration, which significantly narrowed the criteria for jure sanguinis, or citizenship by right of blood. The court’s decision, expected in the coming weeks, follows a period of intense legal debate over whether the government can legally disqualify applicants who had already initiated the bureaucratic process before the law took effect.
In May 2025, the Italian Parliament passed a law that restricted citizenship eligibility to individuals whose parent or grandparent was an Italian citizen at birth and did not subsequently renounce that citizenship through naturalization in another country. This replaced the previous, more expansive system that allowed descendants to claim citizenship through great-grandparents or earlier ancestors, provided the line of descent remained unbroken. The Meloni government, led by the Brothers of Italy party, argued the change was necessary to preserve the integrity of Italian national identity and to manage the administrative burden on consulates, particularly in North and South America.
The legal challenge currently before the Supreme Court was brought by two families from the United States who argue that the 2025 law violates the principle of non-retroactivity. Under Italian legal standards, new laws typically apply only to future cases unless specifically stated otherwise. The plaintiffs, including individuals such as Sabrina Crawford from California, contend that because they had already gathered the necessary genealogical documentation and were awaiting appointments or final processing when the law was enacted, their applications should be judged under the previous, more lenient criteria.
The ruling comes at a time of significant demographic and political tension in Italy. While the Meloni administration has moved to restrict jure sanguinis for distant descendants, it has simultaneously faced pressure regarding ius soli or ius scholae policies, which would grant citizenship to children of immigrants born or educated in Italy. According to data from the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), Italy’s birth rate hit a record low in 2024, leading some opposition leaders to argue that the country should be expanding, rather than restricting, its citizen base to combat a shrinking workforce.
Geopolitically, the outcome of this case affects Italy’s relations with its diaspora, particularly in the United States, Brazil, and Argentina. These nations house the largest populations of Italian descendants globally. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that prior to the 2025 law change, citizenship applications through descent accounted for a significant portion of consular activity. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, it could force the Ministry of the Interior to process a backlog of thousands of applications that were previously rejected or suspended following the May 2025 decree.