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15. It appears to have been assumed, at any rate in the United States, up-to-date, that the issue of a passport rests entirely within the discretion of the State Department and is not subject to court review. There were several in stances in which it was clear that the denial of passports was based entirely on the political activities or association of the applicants. The nearest approach to judicial interference was in the two suits which were instituted in the District Court of Columbia in 1952 wherein the Court ruled that the State Department must grant a hearing before revoking or refusing to renew a passport. (Emerson and Haber on Political and Civil Rights in the United States, page 522), The case in -- 'Perkins v. Elg', (1939) 83 Law Ed 1320 (E) also proceeds on the footing that the State Department has got a discretion with respect to the issue of passports. The plaintiff there was refused a passport solely upon the ground that though she was a natural born citizen of the United States, she had lost her United States citizenship by reason of certain events. The Supreme Court gave a declaration that she had not lost her citizenship. This declaration was granted also against the Secretary of State with the following comment:

Passports are refused only on the basis of very clear and definite reports from the investigative and security offices of this department and of other Government departments and agencies and from foreign Governments containing a well-authenticated in formation concerning past and present activities and associations of the applicant ...".
15a. There has been legislation in the Unit ed States prohibiting any person to depart' from the United States unless he bore a valid passport; but such legislation has been temporary and only during the existence of a national emergency.

24. We very well realise that by refusing to issue a passport the Government can effectively prevent any citizen from going to a particular country which the Government may not like the person to visit purely on political grounds and on account of ideological differences. There have been protests in the United States against the policy pursued by the Government of that country in refusing passports for purely political reasons. Appeal has been made to Article 13, paragraph 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which runs thus:

"Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country."

There is a very learned and interesting article in the Yale Law Journal for February 1952 on "Passport refusals for political reasons; Constitutional issues and judicial review." The starting point for the discussion is thus stated:

"Freedom to leave one's country temporarily for travel abroad is important to individual, national and international well being. But today this right of exit depends, for the great majority of the world's people, on ability to secure passports. An individual denied a passport may be unable either to leave his nation or to enter others."