Whether the government improperly sought to relitigate ultimate facts previously determined by a jury in a prosecution involving identity and citizenship claims

Jose Aguirre has been known by two names— Jose Lopez Aguirre and Jose Estrada-Aguirre—and has been known to have born in two places—Ojos Calientes, Chihuahua, Mexico and Hot Springs, Texas, United States. In 2006, Aguirre attempted to enter the United States and presented a birth certificate that said he was Jose Lopez Aguirre born in Hot Springs, Texas. When immigration officials ran his information through their database, they discovered he had previously been convicted of drug crimes and deported from the United States as Jose Estrada-Aguirre. They arrested him and accused him of attempting to illegally re-enter the United States and falsely claim U.S. citizenship when he presented the birth certificate. Aguirre’s only defense was that the birth certificate truthfully showed that he had been born in Hot Springs, Texas, as Jose Lopez Aguirre and, therefore, was a United States citizen and did not falsely claim to be one when he presented the birth certificate. The jury found him not guilty. In 2023, the government convicted Aguirre of making a false statement and perjury when he filled out a passport application in 2013 and (1) said he was Jose Lopez Aguirre, (2) said he was born in Hot ii Springs, Texas, (3) left blank a space for other names, and (4) omitted his previous drug conviction. The U.S. Constitution prevents a person from being put twice in jeopardy for the same offense. From that protection, this Court has held that a person acquitted in a prior proceeding by a general verdict may foreclose, in future trials, an issue that a rational jury must have decided in his favor in the prior proceeding. Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436 (1970). This case, then, presents an issue that is the subject of a deepening circuit split: Whether the government sought to relitigate, as an “ultimate fact,” in this prosecution the two facts that the prior jury determined—that Aguirre was a natural-born citizen by virtue of his birth in Hot Springs, Texas, as Jose Lopez Aguirre—despite the lack of overlapping elements between the charges in the original trial—false claim to citizenship and illegal re-entry—and the subsequent trial—false statement on a passport and perjury.