.... Who in government decides whether the U.S. will recognize the legitimacy of another nation’s government?

 

Many have long assumed that the answer was: the President.  Even George Washington thought that, and so have his successors.  But that was not the final or definitive answer, until just now: it is the answer given by a federal appeals court in Washington, in a case growing out of the ancient struggle over control of the holy city of Jerusalem. ...