International
David Goldman / AP
The Supreme Court struck down a 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. Passports simply list "Jerusalem," with no reference to Israel.
Since occupying East Jerusalem in the war of June 1967, Israel has proclaimed the city its “eternal, undivided capital” — but that claim is not recognized by the U.S. or the rest of the international community.
No country maintains its embassy in Jerusalem, and every U.S. president starting with Bill Clinton has signed a waiver every six months on implementing the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 that requires relocating the facility from its current location in Tel Aviv. The status of Jerusalem, claimed by both Israel and Palestinians as their capital, has been a central issue in the now-stalled peace 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.
The court's consideration of the case has coincided with acute Palestinian-Israeli tension over Jerusalem and strain in Israeli-American relations highlighted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's criticism of the U.S. role in international negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.
For his part, President Barack Obama has said he remains unconvinced by Netanyahu's efforts to clarify statements the prime minister made during his campaign for re-election that rejected creation of a Palestinian state.
In the voting breakdown, the court's four liberals, including the three Jewish justices, joined Kennedy's opinion that sided with the administration and against the Zivotofskys.
The Associated Press
Analysis: Israeli leaders talk as if control of East Jerusalem is irreversible, but protests show an uncertain fate
Case prompted by parents of US citizen seeks to list son’s place of birth as Israel, not Jerusalem, on passport
Israeli PM's pledge threatens to raise tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in contested East Jerusalem
Error
Sorry, your comment was not saved due to a technical problem. Please try again later or using a different browser.