USC GOULD SCHOOL OF LAW — It took filing a federal lawsuit for Professor Emily Ryo to complete a new empirical study on the naturalization, or citizenship, process. “The Importance of Race, Gender, and Religion in Naturalization Adjudication in the United States,” co-written with Reed Humphrey (MPP 2018), Ph.D. candidate at the Evans School of Public Policy, University of Washington, indicates that naturalization adjudication outcomes are significantly different for many racial, ethnic, religious and gender groups. The research, posted in late February in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), determined that, despite widespread assumptions of fair and equitable treatment in the process, race, ethnicity, gender and religion predict approval rates. The study shows probability of approval for Black males at 89 % compared to 94 % for White females; probability for Blacks from Muslim-majority countries is 86% compared to 96% for Whites from non-Muslim majority countries; and probability for females from Muslim-majority countries was 87%, compared to 93% for females from non-Muslim majority countries. The data range from the years 2014-2018.