WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is weighing a Jerusalem-born boy’s challenge to State Department policy that prevents him from having his passport show he was born in Israel.
Middle Eastern politics and the battle between Congress and the president over foreign policy are at play in the case being argued at the high court Monday.
The Obama administration says it doesn’t want to anger Arabs by appearing to take a position on the ultimate fate of Jerusalem. Longstanding U.S. policy says the status of the city that is important to Jews, Muslims and Christians should be resolved in negotiations.
But lawyers for the 9-year-old boy argue that the foreign policy concerns are trivial. A 2002 law allows Israel to be listed as the birthplace for Americans born in Jerusalem.
