http://pjmedia.com/blog/the-president-congress-and-menachem-zivotofsky%e2%80%99s-passport/?print=1
Can an American citizen born in Jerusalem list “Israel” as his nation of birth?
By the end of the oral argument [1] yesterday in Zivotofsky v. Clinton, it was not clear which way the Supreme Court would go. But it was clear that, in the course of considering the validity of the 2002 law giving Americans born in Jerusalem the right to have “Israel” on their passports as their place of birth, the Justices were grappling with some of the most basic questions involving judicial, congressional and presidential power under the Constitution.
Congress clearly has the power to legislate regarding passports, because it has repeatedly done so — including in 1994, when it passed a law giving Americans born in Taiwan the right to have “Taiwan” on their passports as their place of birth, notwithstanding official U.S. foreign policy as articulated by the Executive Branch — that there is only one China (the People’s Republic) and that Taiwan is not a separate country. President Clinton signed the law and implemented it, while making it clear it represented no change in the U.S. “One China” policy.
President Bush signed the 2002 law regarding Jerusalem, but refused to implement it on grounds it contradicted U.S. policy that sovereignty over Jerusalem is an issue to be decided in the future and the law “interfered with the president’s constitutional authority to conduct the nation’s foreign affairs” — a refusal continued by President Obama even though during the 2008 campaign he criticized Bush for his practice of signing but not implementing legislation.