authority by refusing to issue passports to Communists. It did not rule on the constitutionality of the law because the only law which Congress had passed expressly curtailing the movement of Communists across U.S. borders had yet to take effect. Six years later, the Court in Aptheker v. Secretary of State, found that the law violated First Amendment principles and left unsettled the extent to which this liberty to travel can be curtailed. Majority opinion In a majority opinion written by Justice William O. Douglas, the Court reviewed the history of the issuance and regulation of US passports, noting that the passport is "a document which, from its nature and object, is addressed to foreign powers; purporting only to be a request that the bearer of it may pass safely and freely, and is to be considered rather in the character of a political document by which the bearer is recognized in foreign countries as an American citizen" citing Urtetiqui v. D'Arbel, and that except in wartime "for most of our history, a passport was not a condition to entry or exit" concluding that the issuance of passports is "a discretionary act" on the part of the Secretary of State. The Court then surveyed Angevin law under Magna Carta, citing Article 42 in support of the right to travel as a "liberty" right. It referenced Chafee in Three Human Rights in the Constitution of 1787. At that point the Court began to use the phrase "freedom of movement" as in "Freedom of movement is basic in our scheme of values", citing Crandall v. Nevada Williams v. Fears, Edwards v. California, and Vestal, Freedom of Movement, 41 Iowa L.Rev. 6, 13-14, although all the cases it cited involved interstate travel. The Court concluded that although "Freedom to travel is, indeed, an important aspect of the citizen's liberty" it need not decide the extent to which it can be curtailed because it was first concerned with the extent, if any, to which Congress had authorized its curtailment. It reviewed prior administrative practice, noting that the power of the Secretary of State over the issuance of passports is expressed in broad terms, but long exercised quite narrowly. Historically, the cases of refusal of passports generally fell into two categories. First was the question pertinent to the citizenship of the applicant and his allegiance to the United States. Second was the question whether the