Stephen Krueger

Independent

Abstract

Part A.Scope of essay. The authority of the United States to restrict or prohibit departures from the United States by citizens generally, and by a particular citizen through denial of a United States passport to him.

Part B:United States nationality. There are United States citizen nationals, and there are United States non-citizen nationals. Statutory and regulatory definitions of those terms. Few people are United States non-citizen nationals.

Part C:United States passports. The two formats are passport books and passport cards.

Part D:Authority. Some statutes and regulations which pertain to passport usage.

Part E:History. Early settlement of the thirteen colonies. The colonial period. From the start of the War for Independence through 1781. The Articles of Confederation period. From 1789 through near the end of 1941. November 29, 1941, was the first day of the contemporary era of the requirement, under United States law, that citizens use passports to leave or enter United States. After World War II to the present. Law of nations and “international law”.

Part F:United States Constitution. Alexander Hamilton.The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America. Commerce Clause, War Clause, Slave-Trade Clause, Import-Export Clause, Reception Clause, Ninth Amendment, and Tenth Amendment.

Part G:United States Supreme Court. At first, the court considered the right of travel, both interstate travel and international travel, as unitary. In 1978, however, the court split the unitary right into an interstate-travel component and an international-travel component. Interstate travel remained a right. International travel was downgraded to “no more than an aspect of liberty” and thereafter to a freedom.Califano v. Torres, 435 U.S. 1, 4 n. 6 (1978). That split remains in case law.

Part H:Zemel andKent. The constitutional framework:Zemel requires that placing a foreign country off-limits to all citizens, by the State Department, must be based on a weighty consideration of international relations.Kent requires that denial or revocation of a passport, in relation to a specific citizen, must be based on a consistent practice of denial or revocation for that reason. 

The constitutional framework was undone. (1)By the Congress and the President: Some statutes authorize passport denials and revocations for reasons unrelated to identity or United States nationality. Example: When a citizen is more than $2,500 in arrears on child support. 42 U.S.C. § 652(k). (2)By the bureaucracy:  Many State Department regulations, which have no statutory support, purport to permit the State Department to deny or revoke passports for reasons unrelated to identity or United States nationality. 22 C.F.R. §§ 51.60, 51.61, and 51.62. Example: When a passport applicant “is subject to a criminal court order, condition of probation, or condition of parole, any of which forbids departure from the United States and the violation of which could result in the issuance of a Federal warrant of arrest, including a warrant issued under the Federal Fugitive Felon Act”. 22 C.F.R. § 51.60(b)(2).

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