Court strikes down 'born in Jerusalem' passport law
The Associated Press - By By MARK SHERMAN -
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court struck down a disputed law Monday that would have allowed Americans born in Jerusalem to list their birthplace as Israel on their U.S. passports in an important ruling that underscores the president's authority in foreign affairs.
The court ruled 6-3 that Congress overstepped its bounds when it approved the law in 2002. It would have forced the State Department to alter its long-standing policy of not listing Israel as the birthplace for Jerusalem-born Americans.
The policy is part of the government's refusal to recognize any nation's sovereignty over Jerusalem, until Israelis and Palestinians resolve its status through negotiations.
Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his majority opinion that the president has the exclusive power to recognize foreign nations, and that the power to determine what a passport says is part of this power.
"Recognition is a topic on which the nation must speak with one voice. That voice must be the president's," Kennedy wrote.
The ruling ends a 12-year-old lawsuit by a Jerusalem-born American, Menachem Zivotofsky, and his U.S. citizen parents.
Justice Antonin Scalia read a summary of his dissent from the bench, saying the Constitution "divides responsibility for foreign affairs between Congress and the president." Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito joined the dissent.
In a separate dissent, Roberts cast the court's decision as dangerously ground-breaking. "The court takes the perilous step — for the first time in our history — of allowing the president to defy an act of Congress in the field of foreign affairs," Roberts wrote.
Justice Clarence Thomas agreed with the outcome of the case, but on narrower grounds.
http://start.toshiba.com/news/read/article/the_associated_press-court_strikes_down_born_in_jerusalem_passport_law-ap
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