the reach of Zemel, the plaintiffs received widespread support, including amicus briefs from the ACLUs of Vermont, Mas- sachusetts, and Florida as well as from the Center for Constitutional Rights. Ultimate- ly, the parties agreed to voluntarily dismiss the case when President Obama unilater- ally amended the regulations to allow for unlimited family visits. However, while this was a promising policy change, the lack of a formal legal resolution means that future administrations could just as easily revert to the draconian rules prohibiting family visits.
Vermont Leads the Way on Cuban Engagement
the United States if they also do business in Cuba to simply prohibiting Americans from traveling to the Island to learn about it themselves, our political policy has been one of disengagement and lost economic opportunity. Indeed, since President Ken- nedy first began enforcing a virtual travel ban, Cuba has been a forbidden fruit, open to people of every nation but our own. Until recently, OFAC regulations have
prohibited U.S. citizens and residents from visiting Cuba without a specific license, is- sued under a narrow set of licensable cir- cumstances, by the Treasury Department. Several challenges to this ban have been litigated to the U.S. Supreme Court to no avail. Most notably perhaps, is the case Ze- mel v. Rusk1
in which the Court examined
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the constitutionality of the travel ban as it applies to the general prohibition on Amer- icans ability to travel to Cuba. In short, the Court held that, while the U.S. Constitution protects a right to domestic travel, it does not protect a right to international travel and thus, the Cuban travel ban did not run afoul of the bill of rights. More recently and closer to home, a
group of Cuban Americans in Vermont challenged the constitutionality of the em- bargo in federal court in Vermont arguing that the prohibitions on Cuban-Americans visiting their families in Cuba impermissibly burdened the constitutionally protected right to maintain familial relationships.2
Fo-
cusing on the First Amendment right to as- sociate with one’s family, and thus avoiding
THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • WINTER 2012
So what does this brief history lesson have to do with law and Vermont? The an- swer lies in the national and international leadership role Vermont has always played. From our historic place as the independent republic that outlawed slavery before any other state to our embracing the local food movement, Vermont has had a dispropor- tional impact on issues of national and in- ternational significance. In keeping with our reputation as a state that leads the na- tion on so many issues, Vermont has been a trailblazer when it comes to Cuba. Most recently, Burlington College, a small liber- al arts college located in Burlington, an- nounced that it was collaborating with the Vermont Bar Association to launch Con- tinuing Legal Education courses for legal professionals that will take place in Ha- vana, Cuba. The comparative-law-based CLE program will focus on understanding Cuban law, including topics such as crimi-
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Vermont and Cuba
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