Opinion ID: 187427
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The Recognition Power

Text: The Executive has exclusive and unreviewable authority to recognize foreign sovereigns. This power derives from Article II, § 3 of the Constitution, which gives the President the sole power to receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers from foreign countries. U.S. CONST. Art. II, § 3. The power to receive ambassadors includes the power to recognize governments with whom the United States will establish diplomatic relationships. This recognition power is vested solely in the President. See Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino, 376 U.S. 398, 410, 84 S.Ct. 923, 11 L.Ed.2d 804 (1964) (Political recognition is exclusively a function of the Executive.); Baker, 369 U.S. at 212, 82 S.Ct. 691 ([R]ecognition of foreign governments so strongly defies judicial treatment that without executive recognition a foreign state has been called `a republic of whose existence we know nothing....'). It is also clear that, under the recognition power, the President has the sole authority to make determinations regarding the sovereignty of disputed territories. See Williams v. Suffolk Ins. Co., 38 U.S. (13 Pet.) 415, 420 (1839) (stating that when the executive branch assume[s] a fact in regard to the sovereignty of any island or country ... it is conclusive on the judicial department); Baker, 369 U.S. at 212, 82 S.Ct. 691 ([T]he judiciary ordinarily follows the executive as to which nation has sovereignty over disputed territory....). Finally, and importantly, the recognition power is not limited to a determination of the government to be recognized. It includes the power to determine the policy which is to govern the question of recognition. United States v. Pink, 315 U.S. 203, 229, 62 S.Ct. 552, 86 L.Ed. 796 (1942).