US Supreme Court agrees to decide whether Congress can decide that Jerusalem is Israel's capital
Now at the high court, the case will examine a constitutional question of checks and balances: whether the president of the United States is the sole authority able to declare US foreign policy, or whether Congress may pass law overriding the policy.
Congress attempted to pass such a law in the 2003 Foreign Relations Authorization Act , which declared that “the Secretary [of State] shall, upon the request of the citizen or the citizen’s legal guardian, record the place of birth as Israel " in that citizen's passport.
The legislation had wide support among major American Jewish organizations, such as the Jewish Federations of North America and the American Jewish Committee. But over the summer, a federal appeals court struck down key provisions of that law, ruling the president retains the ability to determine Jerusalem's sovereignty over Congress based on constitutional grounds.
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Congress has pushed against the White House on this matter through several administrations. However, the State Department, through both Democratic and Republican administrations, has refused to directly declare Jerusalem the Israeli capital or indirectly declare the city Israeli territory through passport listings.
Asked on Monday to comment on the ruling, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that the government's position on Jerusalem's status had not changed.For those who have forgotten, here's AP's Matt Lee taking apart Jen Psaki's predecessor, Victoria Nuland on this issue.
Let's go to the videotape.
Today's press briefing isn't up yet. Stay tuned.
Labels: Jen Psaki, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Matt Lee, Menachem Binyamin Zivotofsky, US Supreme Court
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:04 PM
1 Comments:
There is perhaps another perspective to this case: namely the executive arm of the US Government's arbitrary nullification of US LAW, i.e. an act of Congress signed by the US President. Not withstanding the obfuscation of "signing statements" to reflect executive reservations about initialing a law, the law has no lesser status than any other law. This is an increasing issue as Obama has selectively not enforced or even rewritten US Code so many times in the last few years, e.g. see the Obamacare bru ha ha in the papers today. The Jerusalem case may become just a sideshow in the litigation of this more important principle.
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