Robert Lodge, born in Jamaica to unmarried parents, was brought to the United States by his naturalized-citizen father and later faced removal after aggravated-felony convictions. He argued that the former derivative-citizenship statute’s preference for unmarried mothers violated equal protection and asked the court to treat his father as able to transmit citizenship. The Eleventh Circuit held that the challenged sex classification did not cause Lodge’s inability to derive citizenship: even under a sex-neutral reading of the old statute, his father could transmit citizenship only if Lodge’s maternity had not been established, and it had. The court therefore could not grant the citizenship remedy he sought and did not reach the constitutional merits or decide whether Lodge could assert his father’s rights. The court denied the petition for review, leaving the removal order in place, and denied as moot Lodge’s motion to transfer the nationality question to district court.