Haig v. Agee

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Haig v. Agee
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 14, 1981 Decided June 29, 1981
Full case name	Haig, Secretary of State v. Philip Agee
Citations	453 U.S. 280 (more) 101 S. Ct. 2766; 69 L. Ed. 2d 640; 1981 U.S. LEXIS 39; 49 U.S.L.W. 4869; 7 Media L. Rep. 1545
Holding
The Passport Act of 1926 granted the Executive the power to revoke a passport when necessary for national security. Constitutional protections on due process right to travel are subordinate to national security and foreign policy considerations and subject to reasonable government regulation. Revocation of passport here acted as inhibition of action rather than inhibition of speech. Prerevocation hearings are not required in cases involving discernible adverse effects on the nation's security.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Potter Stewart Byron White · Thurgood Marshall Harry Blackmun · Lewis F. Powell Jr. William Rehnquist · John P. Stevens
Case opinions
Majority	Burger, joined by Stewart, White, Blackmun, Powell, Rehnquist, Stevens
Concurrence	Blackmun
Dissent	Brennan, joined by Marshall
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. V, Passport Act of 1926

Haig v. Agee, 453 U.S. 280 (1981), was a United States Supreme Court case that upheld the right of the executive branch to revoke a citizen's passport for reasons of national security and the foreign policy interests of the U.S. under the Passport Act of 1926.

The case involved Congressional delegation of authority over control of passports and the right to international travel. Philip Agee was an ex-Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer living overseas who in 1974 declared a "campaign to fight the U.S. CIA wherever it is operating" and revealed the identities of several CIA officers resulting in violence against them. The Secretary of State revoked Agee's passport in 1979. Agee sued, alleging the secretary had no such authority, had denied him procedural due process rights, his substantive due process "liberty" right to travel under the Fifth Amendment, and had violated his First Amendment right to criticize government policies.

The district court found the Secretary lacked the power to revoke the passport and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia^[1] affirmed that decision. The Supreme Court reversed the lower court, holding that the broad discretion accorded the executive branch in matters of national security and foreign policy requires that the Passport Act of 1926 (currently codified at 22 U.S.C. § 211a et seq.) should be interpreted as granting the power to revoke a passport when necessary for national security.