Equally American Thanks Ms. Sierra Zorita for Her Board Services

Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-Arizona), the Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, has introduced a resolution (H.Res. 279) acknowledging that the United States Supreme Court’s decisions in the Insular Cases and the “territorial incorporation doctrine” are contrary to the text and history of the United States Constitution, rest on racial views and stereotypes from the era of Plessy v. Ferguson that have long been rejected, are contrary to our Nation’s most basic constitutional and democratic principles, and should be rejected as having no place in United States constitutional law.

Washington, D.C. -- Equally American issued the following statement today, after testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health on protecting access to health care in U.S. territories:

Washington, D.C. -- Equally American issued the following statement in response to the United States Senate confirming Deb Haaland to serve as Secretary of the Interior in the Biden-Harris Administration. The Department of Interior is responsible for coordinating federal policy for the territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands through its Office of Insular Affairs.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Late yesterday, Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-Arizona), the Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, and twelve of his House colleagues sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking the Biden Department of Justice to stop defending federal statutes that arbitrarily deny equal treatment to U.S. citizens in the territories in a range of federal programs, including Supplemental Security Income (SSI). SSI is a vital safety net which protects low-income Americans who are aged, blind, or disabled from extreme poverty.

Tomorrow, the U.S. Department of Justice will argue before a federal district court judge in Reeves v. Nago that federal overseas voting laws that discriminate against residents of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands cannot be challenged in federal court and that the appropriate remedy for any constitutional violation would be to restrict rather than expand the right to vote. Reeves is a case brought by veterans and others living in Guam and the Virgin Islands who could vote for President and voting representation in Congress if they lived almost anywhere else in the world, including in a foreign country or even the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory less than a hundred miles from Guam. The March 5^th hearing will be before Judge Jill Otake in Hawaii at 9 am Hawaii time (3pm in the Virgin Islands/Puerto Rico, 2pm East Coast, 11am Pacific, and 5am Guam time).