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 The 6-3 ruling, a victory for President Barack Obama, comes at a
time of strained relations between Israel and the United States, the
Jewish state's most important ally. The Obama administration had
said if the law were enforced it would have caused "irreversible
damage" to America's ability to influence the region's peace process
and reversed long-standing American policy not to recognize
Jerusalem as part of Israel.
Writing for the court in an important ruling on separation of powers
within the U.S. government, Kennedy said the U.S. Congress, which
enacted the law in 2002, has a role to play in foreign policy but
cannot make decisions on recognizing foreign governments. The U.S.
Constitution makes that the president's "exclusive power," Kennedy
wrote.
Congress passed the law when President George W. Bush was president.
Neither his administration nor Obama's ever enforced it. While
Israel calls Jerusalem its capital, few other countries accept that.
Most, including the United States, maintain embassies in Tel Aviv.
"Congress cannot command the president to contradict an earlier
recognition determination in the issuance of passports," added
Kennedy, a conservative who often holds the key vote in close cases.
 Ari and Naomi Zivotofsky, the American parents of now-12-year-old
Menachem Zivotofsky, had waged a long court battle to have their
son's U.S. passport state he was born in Israel.
The case touched upon what Kennedy called the "delicate subject" of
Jerusalem's status. The city, considered holy to Jews, Muslims and
Christians, is claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians and has
been a point of contention in the Middle East for decades.
Seeking to remain neutral on the issue of sovereignty over
Jerusalem, the State Department allows passports to name the city as
the place of birth, with no country name included. The ruling means
Menachem Zivotofsky's passport will simply list "Jerusalem" as his
birthplace.
The court was divided. Its four liberals joined Kennedy in the
majority. Conservative Clarence Thomas agreed with the outcome but
differed over the legal rationale. The other conservatives, John
Roberts, Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito, dissented, saying the law
did not involve recognition of a foreign government.
"Never before has this court accepted a president's direct defiance
of an act of Congress in the field of foreign affairs," Chief
Justice Roberts wrote in dissent.
The ruling, Scalia added, "will erode the structure of equal and
separated powers that the people established for the protection of
their liberty."
U.S. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said the ruling
"confirms the long-established authority of the president over the
conduct of diplomacy and foreign policy."
'CENTRAL FALLACY'
Lawyers for the Zivotofsky family, Nathan and Alyza Lewin, expressed
disappointment in a ruling they said highlights the "central
fallacy" in the attitudes of U.S. presidents since Israel's founding
in 1948.
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"Presidents have been permitted by American public opinion to
maintain, as American foreign policy, the absurd position that no
country is sovereign over Jerusalem, and that no part of the city,
including the western portion of Jerusalem, is in Israel," they
said.
Nabil Abu Rdaineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas, hailed the "important decision" that runs in accord with U.N.
resolutions, adding, "This is a clear message that Israel occupies
East Jerusalem as well as the West Bank and Gaza Strip."
Palestinians want East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in a 1967 war,
as capital of the state they aim to establish alongside Israel in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Zev Elkin, an Israeli cabinet minister with responsibility for
Jerusalem, said in remarks carried by the website of the Maariv
newspaper: "United Jerusalem is the capital of the state of the
Jews, the state of Israel, and will remain so forever."
Elkin called on the Obama administration "to recognize a simple fact
that is the cornerstone of Jewish tradition and of Christian
tradition: Jerusalem is the heart of hearts of the land of Israel,
and the eternal capital of the state of Israel."
An estimated 50,000 American citizens were born in Jerusalem and
could, if they requested it, list Israel as their birthplace if the
law had been enforced.
Kennedy said the ruling's scope was limited to a president's power
to recognize foreign governments. But some experts said it could
have a broader impact on disputes between the White House and
Congress on other foreign policy issues.
"In effect, its real precedential value will be behind closed doors,
where it will put a substantial thumb on the scale in favor of the
president in cases in which the political branches disagree on a
fundamental question of foreign policy," American University
Washington College of Law professor Steve Vladeck said.
(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Dan Williams
in Jerusalem and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah)
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