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Washington. — The Supreme Court struck down a disputed law yesterday that would have allowed Americans born in Jerusalem to list their birthplace as Israel on their US passports in an important ruling that underscores the president’s authority in foreign affairs.

The court ruled 6-3 that Congress overstepped its bounds when it approved the law in 2002. It would have forced the state department to alter its long-standing policy of not listing Israel as the birthplace for Jerusalem-born Americans.

The policy is part of the government’s refusal to recognise any nation’s sovereignty over Jerusalem, until Israelis and Palestinians resolve its status through negotiations.

Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his majority opinion that the president has the exclusive power to recognise foreign nations, and that the power to determine what a passport says is part of this power.

“Recognition is a matter on which the nation must speak with one voice. That voice is the president’s,” Kennedy wrote.

The ruling ends a 12-year-old lawsuit by a Jerusalem-born American, Menachem Zivotofsky, and his US citizen parents.

In the voting breakdown, the court’s four liberals, including the three Jewish justices, joined Kennedy’s opinion that sided with the administration and against the Zivotofskys. — News24.