The Government Shouldn't Be Forced to Put "Jerusalem, Israel" in U.S. Passports
April 21, 2014
Menachem Zivotofsky was born in October 2002 to Americans parents living in Israel. That same year, Congress passed the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, which required the U.S. government to put "Jerusalem, Israel" as the place of birth in the passports of Jerusalem-born U.S. citizens, if they requested it. But the State Department refused to enforce the law, in keeping with the government’s longstanding neutrality on Jerusalem—that it’s neither part of Israel nor Palestine.
Over a decade later, the attempt by the Zivotofsky family to get “Jerusalem, Israel” as his birthplace on his passport, as opposed to simply "Jerusalem," is making its way to the Supreme Court. On Monday, the Supreme Court said that it would hear the case of Zivotofsky v. Kerry, and answer the question of whether the State Department has to enforce the statute and list "Jerusalem, Israel" in Menachem Zivotofsky's passport.
As the case has wound its way through the courts, including an earlier decision at the Supreme Court allowing the case to move forward, it has become a cause celebre amongst right-wing lawyers and some Jewish organizations. Nathan Lewin, an attorney known for representing Jewish causes, took up the case. In one brief, major Jewish organizations including the Anti-Defamation League, B’nai Brith, and AIPAC argued for Zivotofsky's position. Conservative legal luminary Ted Olson represented a group of congressmen who filed a brief in the case. In the lead-up to the 2012 election, right-wing commentators tried to use the case to argue that the State Department’s refusal to recognize Jerusalem on the passport represented President Obama’s anti-Israel attitude. Now that the case will go before the Supreme Court, we can expect more such haranguing.
However, this case has nothing to do with the actual capital of Israel and everything to do with the constitutional power of the president. Jewish organizations, even those who feel passionately that Jerusalem should be the undivided capital of Israel, ought to steer clear of the case. Even Lewin, Zivotofsky's lawyer, conceded that “this case is much more limited in a Jewish context” and “much broader in the separation of powers context.”
in full: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117468/zivotofsky-v-kerry-jerusalem-passport-case-heads-supreme-court
H.R. 1646 (107th): Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/107/hr1646/text
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