On Wednesday, the civil rights advocacy group Equally American urged Congressional leaders to take action to reject the Insular Cases after the Supreme Court failed to do so earlier this week in its decision upholding Puerto Rico’s undemocratic PROMESA Oversight Board.

On Monday, the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Presidential appointments to Puerto Rico’s PROMESA Oversight Board, but failed to use the opportunity to overrule the Insular Cases.  Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the seven-Justice majority, which reversed a unanimous decision by the First Circuit Court of Appeals and held that the President is not required to obtain the advice and consent of the Senate when appointing members to the Board because they are not “officers of the United States” for the purposes of Article II of the United States Constitution.

Plaintiffs in Fitisemanu v. United States have received a major boost in the form of six separate amicus briefs filed in support of their claim that people born in U.S. territories have a constitutional right to U.S. citizenship. Last December, a federal district court in Utah issued a landmark ruling in their favor. Earlier this year the United States and American Samoa appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, arguing it is Congress, not the Constitution, that answers the question of citizenship for people born in U.S. territories.

Equally American sent letters today to the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee in support of the Insular Area Medicaid Parity Act, H.R. 6495, which seeks to eliminate the general Medicaid funding limitations for Territories of the United States. 

The American Bar Association’s House of Delegates passed a resolution Monday supporting an interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution that recognizes all persons born in the territories as natural-born citizens of the United States.

Following our landmark decision in Fitisemanu v. United States, Equally American will be co-hosting two community forums in Utah on Saturday, January 11th to share with the community what this important ruling means for them.