Alleged international law norm barring detention based on investigations triggered partly by national origin or alienage

[gerald neuman]

I would like to express my partial agreement with Eugene that
discrimination among aliens based on their country of current citizenship
is not constitutionally suspect in the United States, and with his
observation that there may be two or more senses of "national origin"
being conflated here. (I am less comfortable with his suggestion that this
should be extended to discrimination among US citizens based on country of
former citizenship, thus far.)  And international law does not, as I
understand it, impose as strong a bar to discrimination on grounds of
current nationality as it does to discrimination on grounds of "national
origin" in the sense of ethnicity.  (Which is hardly surprising, since
much of international treatymaking allocates benefits on the basis of
nationality.)
This question is, to the best of my knowledge, underanalyzed in US
constitutional literature. I have mentioned it briefly in print, but not
at such length as to be worth citing here.  If other list members are
aware of good writing on the subject, I too would be grateful for a
reference.
The Iranian students case mentioned in an earlier post is Narenji v.
Civiletti.  A very capable district judge regarded discrimination on
grounds of Iranian citizenship as suspect "national origin"
discrimination, but was reversed, partly on other grounds, on appeal. (I
don'thave the citation at hand.)
-- Gerry Neuman