US

Supreme Court backs White House on passport dispute

Attempt to have State indicate in passports that Jerusalem is part of Israel rejected

Chief Justice John G Roberts Jr, one of three dissenters on the vote, said the “decision is a first. Never before has this court accepted a president’s direct defiance of an act of Congress in the field of foreign affairs.” Photograph: AP
Chief Justice John G Roberts Jr, one of three dissenters on the vote, said the “decision is a first. Never before has this court accepted a president’s direct defiance of an act of Congress in the field of foreign affairs.” Photograph: AP
Tue Jun 09 2015 - 11:22

In an important separation-of-powers case, the American Supreme Court on Monday struck down a law that would have allowed American parents of children born in Jerusalem to obtain passports saying the children were born in Israel.

The president rather than Congress must determine national policy on the status of Jerusalem, the majority said.

The decision came against the backdrop of generations of conflict in the Middle East and the longstanding tensions between Congress and presidents, including Barack Obama, on the conduct of foreign policy there.

The vote was 6-3, with Chief Justice John G Roberts Jr and Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel A Alito Jr dissenting.

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Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for five justices, said the court approached the question cautiously. “Jerusalem’s political standing has long been, and remains, one of the most sensitive issues in American foreign policy,” Kennedy wrote, “and indeed it is one of the most delicate issues in current international affairs.”

But Kennedy said the Constitution gives the president exclusive authority to determine the nation’s stance.

"Put simply," he wrote, "the nation must have a single policy regarding which governments are legitimate in the eyes of the United States and which are not."

In dissent, Roberts said the majority had taken a bold step.

“Today’s decision is a first,” he wrote. “Never before has this court accepted a president’s direct defiance of an act of Congress in the field of foreign affairs.”

Reaction to the decision in the Middle East focused on its bottom line and not on the Supreme Court’s differing conceptions of the separation of powers required by the Constitution.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, praised the decision and said it “sends a clear message to Israel that its policies of colonization are null and void.”

The US Embassy is in Tel Aviv, but Mayor Nir Barkat of Jerusalem called on President Barack Obama to recognize his city as Israel's capital, saying it was particularly important "when anti-Semitism is trying to raise its head."