The right to leave
In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
(Adopted by the U.N. in General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) on . The United States voted in favor of adoption.)
Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
The right to leave one’s own country is not the same thing as a right to enter any particular other country, of course. But in order for the right to leave one’s own country to be fully realized, you need a passport. You have to present a passport to border control when entering another country. If you can’t get a passport, your right to leave your own country is a “right” not worth the paper it’s printed on.
Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
Taken together, everyone has the right of equal access to the public service that is the issuance of passports, so that everyone’s right to leave their own country can be fully realized.
In U.S. law
[I]t shall be unlawful for any citizen of the United States to depart from or enter, or attempt to depart from or enter, the United States unless he bears a valid United States passport.
So, at least as far as the U.S. is concerned, a citizen can’t even leave the country wihout a passport.
The right to travel is a part of the
libertyof which the citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law under the Fifth Amendment. […] In Anglo-Saxon law, that right was emerging at least as early as the Magna Carta.
No person shall be[…] deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law[…]
Liceat unicuique decetero exire de regno nostro, et redire, salvo et secure[.]
[I]t shall be lawful for any man to leave and return to our kingdom unharmed and without fear[.]
[Freedom of momvement is] deeply engrained in our history[…] Freedom of movement across frontiers in either direction, and inside frontiers as well, was a part of our heritage. Travel abroad, like travel within the country, may be necessary for a livelihood. It may be as close to the heart of the individual as the choice of what he eats, or wears, or reads. Freedom of movement is basic in our scheme of values. […]
[…A passport’s] crucial function today is control over exit. And, as we have seen, the right of exit is a personal right included within the word
libertyas used in the Fifth Amendment. If thatlibertyis to be regulated, it must be pursuant to the lawmaking functions of the Congress.
We deal with beliefs, with associations, with ideological matters. We must remember that we are dealing here with citizens who have neither been accused of crimes nor found guilty. They are being denied their freedom of movement solely because of their refusal to be subjected to inquiry into their beliefs and associations. They do not seek to escape the law, nor to violate it. […]
[W]e deal here with a constitutional right of the citizen[…] We would be faced with important constitutional questions were we to hold that Congress[…] had given the Secretary authority to withhold passports to citizens because of their beliefs or associations. Congress has made no such provision in explicit terms, and, absent one, the Secretary may not employ that standard to restrict the citizens' right of free movement.