[JURSIT] The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Monday in Zivotofsky v. Kerry [SCOTUSblog materials] that the Constitution gives the president the exclusive power to recognize foreign sovereigns. Seeking to have his place of birth listed as “Israel” on his passport, Jerusalem-born Menachem Zivotofsky and his family appealed trial and appeals court decisions that refused to grant his request on the grounds that, since 1948, the US has not recognized any country as having sovereignty over the holy city. In a 6-3 decision authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court upheld the lower court’s finding that § 214(d) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act [text, PDF] was unconstitutional for violating the president’s sovereignty in foreign relations. The law, through which Congress ordered the State Department to list Israel as the place of birth for US citizens born in Jerusalem if requested, was previously invalidated [opinion, PDF] by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia [official website] in 2013. In dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito as well, urged that the law was not repugnant to the Constitution, as the document divides foreign relations power between the president and Congress.

The case was first tried in the US District Court for the District of Columbia around 2006. After a ruling in favor of the government, the Zivotofsky family appealed to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which decided the case in 2013. The Supreme Court previously ruled [JURIST report] in 2012 that a citizen’s ability to list Israel as a place of birth on a passport is not a political question [Cornell LII backgrounder] but remanded the case for a ruling specifically on the issue. The Supreme Court granted certiorari [JURIST report] on this issue in April 2014. The court heard argument [JURIST report] in November. Although neutral on its face, the decision may have an impact on American-Israel relations in light of the Israel-Palestine conflict [JURIST report].