[conspire] New laws in 2016, cont'd.

[Rick Moen]

I wrote:

> I was troubled recently when I heard that our Feds were now asserting
> their right to require permission and valid US passports from not only
> US citizens and others when coming home but also for them _leaving_.  I
> thought it a settled moral principle that anyone who honestly insists on
> leaving the USA and isn't, say, and escaped convict should have the gate
> opened and told 'Bon voyage', documentation or no, and no permission is
> required.

Deirdre just now informed me that it's a Federal crime for any US
citizen to enter or leave the US other than using a valid USA passport.
8 U.S.C. 1185(b), https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1185 .

My recollection of this having _not_ been the case historically is
correct:  A bit of research finds that it was enacted in 1978, as part of
Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 1979, enacted as 
Public Law 95-426, Sec. 707(b). 

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-92/pdf/STATUTE-92-Pg963.pdf