Opinion ID: 187427
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The Zivotofsky Claim is Plainly Justiciable

Text: In light of the legal principles that control this case, the Secretary's attempt to invoke the political question doctrine is meritless. The following example amplifies the point: Assume that a lawfully enacted congressional statute provides that individuals over the age of 18 have a right to secure a passport on their own. Assume further that the statute gives individuals an enforceable right of action. If the Secretary of State adopts a policy pursuant to which 18-year-olds are denied passports without parental consent, claiming an exercise of the Executive's recognition power, an aggrieved party would have a right of action to challenge the Secretary. A federal court hearing the case would be without authority to dismiss the action as a nonjusticiable political question. Why? Because the plaintiff has standing to pursue her claim and the court has jurisdiction to hear it. And the court would be well able to evaluate the competing claims of power and easily determine that the Executive overreached in its claim to exclusive authority under the recognition power. The court would find no valid exercise of textually committed power by the executive branch. See Powell, 395 U.S. 486, 89 S.Ct. 1944. The flip side of this example is seen in a case like Nixon, 506 U.S. 224, 113 S.Ct. 732. In Nixon, the petitioner asked the Court to decide whether Senate Rule XI, which allowed a committee of Senators to hear evidence against an individual who has been impeached and to report that evidence to the full Senate, violated the Constitution's Impeachment Trial Clause, Art. I, § 3, cl. 6. 506 U.S. at 226, 113 S.Ct. 732. The Trial Clause provides that the Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. Id. (emphasis added). The Court first found that this provision reflects a clear grant of authority to the Senate, and the word `sole' indicates that this authority is reposed in the Senate and nowhere else. Id. at 229, 113 S.Ct. 732. Having found a textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of the impeachment issue to a coordinate political department, the Court held that the action involved a nonjusticiable political question. Zivotofsky's claim, which is founded on a cause of action under § 214(d), is nothing like Nixon's claim. In this case, there are two questions that are properly before the court: (1) whether the Executive's passport policy reflects an action taken within the President's exclusive power to recognize foreign sovereigns; and (2) if so, whether Congress' enactment of § 214(d) impermissibly intruded on the President's exclusive power to recognize foreign sovereigns. These questions raise issues that are constitutionally committed to the judicial branch to decide. Zivotofsky's claim resting on § 214(d) does not require this court to evaluate the wisdom of the Executive's foreign affairs decisions or to determine the political status of Jerusalem. The court's role in this case is to determine the constitutionality of a congressional enactment. And this role is well within the constitutional authority of the judiciary. Japan Whaling Ass'n, 478 U.S. at 230, 106 S.Ct. 2860 ([U]nder the Constitution, one of the Judiciary's characteristic roles is to interpret statutes, and we cannot shirk this responsibility merely because our decision may have significant political overtones.). II. SECTION 214(D) UNCONSTITUTIONALLY INFRINGES THE EXECUTIVE'S EXCLUSIVE AUTHORITY UNDER THE RECOGNITION POWER Zivotofsky has asked the court to direct the State Department to designate Israel as his place of birth on his passport pursuant to Congress' directive in § 214(d). The Executive asserts that § 214(d), if construed to be mandatory, represents an unconstitutional infringement of the President's recognition power as it concerns Jerusalem.