Judge Torruella: Insular Cases Represent “Morally Bankrupt Era in Our History”

 Conference Also Highlights Landmark D.C. Circuit Case About Citizenship in U.S. Territories

“Reconsidering the Insular Cases” was the theme yesterday at Harvard Law School in a conference addressing the constitutional rights of the over 4 million Americans who live in U.S. territories.  The Insular Cases are a series of controversial and deeply divided Supreme Court decisions from the early 1900s that have been compared to Plessy v. Ferguson and criticized as establishing a “separate and unequal” status in U.S. territories.  The conference featured presentations by leading academics and commentators and also highlighted We the People Project’s landmark case Tuaua v. United States, which directly addresses many of the flawed assumptions often attributed to the Insular Cases. 

Neil Weare, President of We the People Project and lead counsel in Tuaua v. United States, makes the case on CNN.com that citizenship in U.S. territories is a constitutional right, not a congressional privilege. 

The Washington Post recently published a Letter to the Editor by Neil Weare, President of We the People Project, making the case for full voting rights for the nearly 5 million Americans living in the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.

Leneuoti Tuaua and five other plaintiffs who are challenging federal laws that deny U.S. citizenship to people born in American Samoa will have their day in court, now that the D.C. Circuit has denied the Government’s request to summarily affirm a district judge’s earlier dismissal of the case.  

President Obama said in his 2013 State of the Union Address that "we are betraying our ideals" when any American is denied the right to vote because of where they live. This month, as President Obama prepares once again to address the nation, nearly 600 soldiers from Guam are returning home after a nine-month deployment in Afghanistan. While these patriotic Americans answered the call to defend democracy overseas, they are denied democracy at home. When the 2016 General Election rolls around, they will be unable to vote for President and will only elect a non-voting Delegate to Congress.

A second wave of 223 Guam soldiers recently returned home from Afghanistan, bringing the total number up to nearly 600.  Several dozen soldiers from Guam who are serving in other units on a different mission remain.