Scalia, J., dissenting
as “Taiwan.” The State Department has complied with the law, but states in its Foreign Affairs Manual: “The United States does not officially recognize Taiwan as a `state' or `country,' although passport issuing officers may enter `Taiwan' as a place of birth.” 7 FAM § 1300, App. D, § 1340(d)(6). Nothing stops a similar disclaimer here.
At other times, the Court seems concerned with Congress's failure to give effect to a recognition decision that the President has already made. The Court protests, for instance, that § 214(d) “directly contradicts” the President's refusal to recognize Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem. Ante, at 30. But even if the Constitution empowers the President alone to extend recognition, it nowhere obliges Congress to align its laws with the President's recognition decisions. Because the President and Congress are “perfectly co-ordinate by the terms of their common commission,” The Federalist No. 49, p. 314 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961) (Madison), the President's use of the recognition power does not constrain Congress's use of its legislative powers.
Congress has legislated without regard to recognition for a long time and in a range of settings. For example, responding in 1817 and 1818 to revolutions in Latin America, Congress amended federal neutrality laws—which originally prohibited private military action for or against recognized states—to prohibit private hostilities against unrecognized states too. Ch. 58, 3 Stat. 370; ch. 88, 3 Stat. 447; see The Three Friends, 166 U. S. 1, 52–59 (1897). Legislation from 90 years ago provided for the revision of national immigration quotas upon one country's surrender of territory to another, even if “the transfer . . . has not been recognized by the United States.” § 12(c), 43 Stat. 161 (1924). Federal law today prohibits murdering a foreign government's officials, 18 U. S. C. § 1116, counterfeiting a foreign government's bonds, § 478, and using American vessels to smuggle goods in violation of a foreign government's laws, § 546—all “irrespective of recognition by the United States,” §§ 11, 1116.
