![US Supreme Court Declines To Hear Appeals On Same-Sex Marriage Cases US Supreme Court Declines To Hear Appeals On Same-Sex Marriage Cases](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/gettyimages-456736656.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Congress cannot require the State Department to allow Americans born in Jerusalem to list Israel as their birthplace on their passports. Siding with the Obama administration over Congress on a 2002 law, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the 6-3 decision that the Constitution confers authority on the President to recognize foreign governments.
“Recognition is an act with immediate and powerful significance for international relations, so the President’s position must be clear. Congress cannot require him to contradict his own statement regarding a determination of formal recognition,” Justice Kennedy said. The court’s four liberal justices, including its only three Jewish members, all sided with the Obama administration.
Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Samuel Alito dissented, arguing that the other justices irrationally feared that the world might misinterpret the passport change to mean that America’s foreign policy in the Middle East had also changed.
“Today’s decision is a first,” Roberts wrote. “Never before has this court accepted a President’s direct defiance of an act of Congress in the field of foreign affairs.”
The case was brought by the parents of Menachem B. Zivotofsky, who was born in Jerusalem shortly after Congress enacted the 2002 foreign relations law allowing citizens of Jerusalem to list their birthplace as Israel. George W. Bush signed the bill, but Bush said he would ignore the section that would allow Jerusalem-born citizens to change their birthplace to Israel. The Obama administration has followed suit, calling the rule unconstitutional.
The State Department had warned the justices ahead of their decision that such an alteration could “provoke uproar throughout the Arab and Muslim World.”
These Teenagers Are Israel’s Future Soldiers
![Mideast Israel Future Soldiers Photo Essay Israeli high-school seniors are instructed on the AK-47 assault rifle as part of a privately run military combat fitness training to prepare for national military service in Netanya, central Israel, Feb 17, 2015.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/israel-future-soldiers-1.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Mideast Israel Future Soldiers Photo Essay Israeli high-school seniors preparing to join the Israeli military participate in an urban fighting drill as part of privately run military combat fitness training, in Kibbutz Mizra, northern Israel, March 24, 2015.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/israel-future-soldiers-8.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Mideast Israel Future Soldiers Photo Essay An Israeli high-school senior preparing to join the Israeli military participates in an urban fighting drill as part of privately run military combat fitness training, in Kibbutz Mizra, northern Israel, March 24, 2015.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/israel-future-soldiers-6.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Mideast Israel Future Soldiers Photo Essay Israeli high-school seniors preparing to join the Israeli military participate in an urban fighting drill as part of privately run military combat fitness training, in Kibbutz Mizra, northern Israel, March 24, 2015.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/israel-future-soldiers-7.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Mideast Israel Future Soldiers Photo Essay Israeli high-school seniors preparing to join the Israeli military participate in an urban fighting drill as part of privately run military combat fitness training, in Kibbutz Mizra, northern Israel, March 24, 2015.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/israel-future-soldiers-4.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Mideast Israel Future Soldiers Photo Essay High-school seniors preparing to join the Israeli military later this year take part in a privately run training camp for military combat fitness near Yakum, central Israel, Feb. 13, 2015.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/israel-future-soldiers-13.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Mideast Israel Future Soldiers Photo Essay Israeli high-school seniors preparing to join the Israeli military later this year crawl out of mud up to a grassy embankment during an exercise at a privately run training camp for military combat fitness near Yakum, central Israel, Feb. 13, 2015.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/israel-future-soldiers-10.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Mideast Israel Future Soldiers Photo Essay A high-school senior crawls through mud during an exercise near Yakum, central Israel, Feb. 13, 2015.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/israel-future-soldiers-3.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Mideast Israel Future Soldiers Photo Essay A high-school senior drags a tire through mud during training near Yakum, central Israel, Feb. 27, 2015.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/israel-future-soldiers-2.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Mideast Israel Future Soldiers Photo Essay An high-school senior pauses in mud during an exercise near Yakum, central Israel, Feb. 27, 2015.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/israel-future-soldiers-11.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Mideast Israel Future Soldiers Photo Essay High-school seniors preparing to join the Israeli military later this year lie in foxholes during training in Shefayim, central Israel, March 5, 2015.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/israel-future-soldiers-12.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Mideast Israel Future Soldiers Photo Essay High-school seniors walk into the sea carrying weighted bags the during military combat fitness training in Shefayim, central Israel, March 5, 2015.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/israel-future-soldiers-9.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Mideast Israel Future Soldiers Photo Essay An exhausted Israeli teen is helped by an instructor during military combat fitness training in Shefayim, central Israel, March 5, 2015.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/israel-futures-soldiers-14.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Why Biden Dropped Out
- Ukraine’s Plan to Survive Trump
- The Rise of a New Kind of Parenting Guru
- The Chaos and Commotion of the RNC in Photos
- Why We All Have a Stake in Twisters’ Success
- 8 Eating Habits That Actually Improve Your Sleep
- Welcome to the Noah Lyles Olympics
- Get Our Paris Olympics Newsletter in Your Inbox
Write to Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com