Post by Logan on Jun 19, 2016 6:05:59 GMT -6
Supreme Court Decisions Demonstrate that Statehood is the Only Way for Puerto Rico to Gain Equal Stature Within the US
In less than a week, the Supreme Court has ruled on three cases impacting Puerto Rico. The rulings are consistent: Puerto Rico may have local authority, but it lacks ultimate power over itself and it will not gain this power absent statehood or independence.
On Thursday, the Court held in Sanchez Valle that Puerto Rico could not independently prosecute individuals if they already had faced federal charges for the same crime. In a footnote, the Supreme Court clarified that Puerto Rico is not on “equal footing” with the States, and does not share in their “power, dignity and authority.”
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that Puerto Rico had no authority to enact a bankruptcy law to fill a void in the federal bankruptcy law. Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas rejected the dissent’s view that “the government and people of Puerto Rico should not have to wait for possible congressional action to avert the consequences” and held instead that “our constitutional structure does not permit this Court to ‘rewrite the statute that Congress has enacted.'”
Reinforcing its position that a United States territory is dependent on Congress, the Court on Monday also rejected in Tuaua v. United States an effort by individuals born in the territory of American Samoa to gain the right to U.S. citizenship from birth under the Fourteenth Amendment. Samoans have been designated by Congress as U.S. nationals, but they are not U.S. citizens.
Read more: www.puertoricoreport.com/supreme-court-decisions-demonstrate-that-statehood-is-the-only-way-for-puerto-rico-to-gain-equal-stature-within-the-us/
In less than a week, the Supreme Court has ruled on three cases impacting Puerto Rico. The rulings are consistent: Puerto Rico may have local authority, but it lacks ultimate power over itself and it will not gain this power absent statehood or independence.
On Thursday, the Court held in Sanchez Valle that Puerto Rico could not independently prosecute individuals if they already had faced federal charges for the same crime. In a footnote, the Supreme Court clarified that Puerto Rico is not on “equal footing” with the States, and does not share in their “power, dignity and authority.”
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that Puerto Rico had no authority to enact a bankruptcy law to fill a void in the federal bankruptcy law. Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas rejected the dissent’s view that “the government and people of Puerto Rico should not have to wait for possible congressional action to avert the consequences” and held instead that “our constitutional structure does not permit this Court to ‘rewrite the statute that Congress has enacted.'”
Reinforcing its position that a United States territory is dependent on Congress, the Court on Monday also rejected in Tuaua v. United States an effort by individuals born in the territory of American Samoa to gain the right to U.S. citizenship from birth under the Fourteenth Amendment. Samoans have been designated by Congress as U.S. nationals, but they are not U.S. citizens.
Read more: www.puertoricoreport.com/supreme-court-decisions-demonstrate-that-statehood-is-the-only-way-for-puerto-rico-to-gain-equal-stature-within-the-us/