Just tested on my American passport - it will not read while closed, either from the front or the back. Opening it up - no issues reading. Seems like there is in fact a faraday mesh or something

Hmm the American passports have the mesh afaik - I _thought_ it was part of the ICAO docs (not that that means people do it but still...)

(It's not)

Yeah but since the USA doesn't sign on to anything above basic auth (MRZ unlock) everyone also has to work on the more basic level. Kinda unfortunate.

Countries all know each other's signing certs. There's a question of how much they _trust_ the other country but the certs are all public.