U.S. Supreme Court to consider Jerusalem passport case

[Scurrilous]

Case involves a U.S. citizen born in Jerusalem, who was refused to list his place of birth as Jerusalem, Israel on his American passport as the U.S. does not recognize any country as having sovereignty over Jerusalem.

<snip>

"The United States Supreme Court said on Monday it would hear an appeal by parents who want Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to record Israel, not just Jerusalem, on their son's U.S. passport.

The justices will consider whether lower court judges were correct to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that it raised a foreign policy issue falling outside the judiciary's power.

The case involves Menachem Zivotofsky, a U.S. citizen born in 2002 in Jerusalem. His mother asked that his passport and other documents list his place of birth as Jerusalem, Israel.

U.S. diplomatic officials told her that State Department policy required them to record only "Jerusalem" as his place of birth because the United States does not currently recognize any country as having sovereignty over Jerusalem.

While Israel calls Jerusalem its "eternal and indivisible" capital, few other states accept that status. Most countries including the United States maintain their embassies to Israel in the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv."

more

[no_hypocrisy]

1. OK, I'm confused. Didn't prior administrations decide to move their

American Embassy to Jerusalem as that city was going to be recognized as the capitol of the counry, not Tel Aviv? And if they did, wouldn't the State Department recognize Jerusalem as part of Israel?

[azurnoir]

3. well you are 'confused' the US embassy is n Tel Aviv

http://israel.usembassy.gov/

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Thanks. Why were all those declarations made if the embassy stayed in Tel Aviv?

I especially remember * making hearty pronouncements about it.

[azurnoir]

5. Politics, politics, and yet more politics

The Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995<1> is a public law of the United States passed by the 104th Congress on October 23, 1995. It was passed for the purposes of initiating and funding the relocation of the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, no later than May 31, 1999, and attempted to withhold 50 percent of the funds appropriated to the State Department specifically for ‘‘Acquisition and Maintenance of Buildings Abroad’’ as allocated in fiscal year 1999 until the United States Embassy in Jerusalem had officially opened.<2> The act also called for Jerusalem to remain an undivided city and for it to be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel. Israel's declared capital is Jerusalem, but this is not internationally recognized, pending final status talks in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The United States has withheld recognition of the city as Israel's capital. The proposed law was adopted by the Senate (93-5),<3> and the House (374-37).<4>

Since passage, the law has never been implemented, because of opposition from Presidents Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama, who view it as a Congressional infringement on the Executive Branch’s constitutional authority over foreign policy; they have consistently claimed the presidential waiver on national security interests.

This page was last modified on 29 April 2011 at 22:18.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Embassy_Act

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. However, we do have the land in Jerusalem waiting to be built upon.

[azurnoir]

7. yep for 16 years now ,

perhaps now that the Palestinians have declared unity and will petition the UN for statehood it will at long last be used bit for an embassy to which country remains to be seen

[azurnoir]

2. Oh I see a bi-partisian effort in the making

who will it be?