The Insular Cases are a series of opinions by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1901 about the status of U.S. territories acquired in the Spanish–American War.[1] Some scholars also include cases regarding territorial status decided up until 1914, and others include related cases as late as 1979.
The term "insular" signifies that the territories were islands administered by the War Department's Bureau of Insular Affairs. Today, the categorizations and implications put forth by the Insular Cases still govern the United States' territories.
When the war ended in 1898, the United States had to answer the question of whether or not people in newly acquired territories were citizens, a question the country had never faced before. The preliminary answer came from a series of Supreme Court rulings, now known as the Insular Cases, which responded to the question of how American constitutional rights apply to those in United States territories. The Supreme Court held that full constitutional protection of rights does not automatically (or ex proprio vigore—i.e., of its own force) extend to all places under American control. This meant that inhabitants of unincorporated territories such as Puerto Rico—"even if they are U.S. citizens"—may lack some constitutional rights (e.g., the right to remain part of the United States in case of de-annexation)[2] because they were not part of the United States. Today, many legal scholars such as José Julián Álvarez González, Christina Burnett, and others[3][4] refer to the Insular Cases as a constitutional justification for colonialism and annexation of places not within United States boundaries.[5] The Insular Cases "authorized the colonial regime created by Congress, which allowed the United States to continue its administration—and exploitation—of the territories acquired from Spain after the Spanish–American War."[6] These Supreme Court rulings allowed for the United States government to extend unilateral power over these newly acquired territories.
The Court also established the doctrine of territorial incorporation, under which the Constitution applied fully only in incorporated territories such as Alaska and Hawaii. Incorporated territories are those that the United States Congress deems on a path to statehood. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ruled the Constitution applied only partially in the newly unincorporated Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. The Supreme Court created the distinction that unincorporated territories were not on the path to statehood, which effectively allowed for the Constitution to apply differently.[7]
The rulings are widely considered racist.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14] The Downes v. Bidwell called the people of the insular areas "alien races" and the De Lima v. Bidwell ruling termed them "savage tribes."[15] The Downes v. Bidwell case further suggested the administration of "alien races" may be "impossible". The District Court of the Virgin Islands called out the cases' "racist doctrine" and the era's "intrinsically racist imperialism".[8]
^Lin, Tom C.W. (2019). "Americans, Almost and Forgotten". California Law Review. 107. SSRN 3454210.
^Levinson, Sanford & Sparrow, Bartholomew H. (2005). "Introduction". The Louisiana Purchase and American Expansion: 1803–1898. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. p. 15. ISBN 9780742549838. OCLC 58976044 – via Google Books.
^"Professor Christina Burnett Testifies on Status of Puerto Rico". Columbia Law School. June 2, 2010. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
^Burnett, Christina Duffy; Marshall, Burke; Joseph, Gilbert M.; Rosenberg, Emily S. "Foreign in a Domestic Sense: Puerto Rico, American Expansion, and the Constitution". BiblioVault. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
^Meléndez, Edgardo (Spring 2013). "Citizenship and the Alien Exclusion in the Insular Cases: Puerto Ricans in the Periphery of American Empire". Centro. 25 (1): 106–145.
^Torruella, Juan (Fall 2013). "Ruling America's Colonies: The 'Insular Cases'" (PDF). Yale Law & Policy Review. 32 (1): 57–95. JSTOR 23736226.
^"Chapter Three: American Samoa and the Citizenship Clause: A Study in Insular Cases Revisionism". Harvard Law Review. 130 (6: Developments in the Law–The U.S. Territories): 1680–1693. April 2017. PDF Archived 2017-10-27 at the Wayback Machine.
^ abNeuman, Gerald L.; Brown-Nagin, Tomiko (May 25, 2015). Reconsidering the Insular Cases: The Past and Future of the American Empire. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-9796395-9-3. Archived.
^Fitzpatrick, Peter (May 2, 2001). Modernism and the Grounds of Law. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00253-0. Archived.
^Wiecek, William M. (2001). The Lost World of Classical Legal Thought: Law and Ideology in America, 1886-1937. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-514713-1. Archived.
^Derieux, Alejandro Agustin Ortiz, Adriel I. Cepeda (February 10, 2022). "The Most Racist Supreme Court Cases You've Probably Never Heard Of | News & Commentary". American Civil Liberties Union. Archived from the original on March 8, 2023. Retrieved October 17, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^"Backgrounder on Campaign to Overrule Insular Cases". Equally American. Archived from the original on March 8, 2023. Retrieved October 17, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^Bernal, Rafael (August 10, 2022). "Supreme Court faces new pressure to reconsider racist 'Insular Cases'". The Hill. Archived from the original on March 8, 2023. Retrieved October 17, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^Mack, Doug (October 9, 2017). "The Racist Supreme Court Cases That Cemented Puerto Rico's Second-Class Status". Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on March 8, 2023. Retrieved October 17, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^The Most Racist Supreme Court Cases You've Probably Never Heard Of: Why does the Biden administration's Department of Justice continue to rely on cases that presume people in the territories are “alien races” composing “savage tribes”?. Alejandro Agustin Ortiz and Adriel I. Cepeda Derieux. American Civil Liberties Union. 10 February 2022. Accessed 7 March 2023. Archived.
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overrule the InsularCases when possible as they "rest on a rotten foundation" and called the cases "shameful". In analyzing the InsularCases, Christina...
to the Territorial Clause of the U.S. Constitution. According to the InsularCases, Puerto Rico is "a territory appurtenant and belonging to the United...
essence, the "InsularCases" established a hybrid policy, merging elements of U.S. expansionism and colonial governance. The main cases include: DeLima...
Anatolia, are extinct. Six Insular Celtic languages are extant (in all cases written and spoken) in two distinct groups: Insular Celtic languages Brittonic...
United States, Puerto Rico is an "appurtenant jurisdiction" to which the Insularcases apply. Except for provisions of the U.S. Constitution that apply by...
1901 opinions in DeLima v. Bidwell and Downes v. Bidwell, two of the InsularCases, considering the status of territories acquired by the U.S. in the Spanish–American...
Insular dwarfism, a form of phyletic dwarfism, is the process and condition of large animals evolving or having a reduced body size when their population's...
doctrine of separate but equal and upheld Jim Crow laws. He argued in the InsularCases that residents of the territories are entitled to constitutional rights...
belongs to, but is not a part of, the United States. See the page for the InsularCases for more information. The constitution specifies the seat of government...
the Supreme Court of the United States, collectively known as "The InsularCases" and the enactment of several statutes by Congress. In 1900, the U.S...
colonies rather than prospective states. The process was validated by the InsularCases. The Supreme Court ruled that full constitutional rights did not automatically...
varieties like Funen dialect had not. The old Insular or Funen dialect could also use personal pronouns in certain cases, particularly to refer to animals. A classic...
was changed to Division of Insular Affairs. In 1902, it became the Bureau of Insular Affairs. As a result of the InsularCases, the U.S. Attorney General...
outlying islands and groups of islands consist of eight United States insular areas in the Pacific Ocean (Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island...
February 2023. American Samoa and the Citizenship Clause: A Study in InsularCases Revisionism Archived 18 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine. harvardlawreview...
belongs to, but is not a part of, the United States. See the page for the InsularCases for more information. "Australia-Oceania :: Guam (Territory of the US)"...
Hawaii portal "American Samoa and the Citizenship Clause: A Study in InsularCases Revisionism". harvardlawreview.org. Retrieved 2020-08-02. "Samoan Population...