The Supreme Court recently declined to hear a case which sought to overrule the “Insular Cases,” a group of decisions from the early 1900s that denied full constitutional rights to the residents of U.S. territories, and which were decided based on racist views and the desire at the time to perpetuate an American colonial empire.
By denying the petition seeking review of this case, the Supreme Court did not decide any of the actual issues, but determined, for reasons not disclosed, that they would not hear the case. Many hundreds of petitions are denied each year in similar fashion.
The s “Insular Cases” addressed the issue of how American constitutional rights would apply to several territories that the U.S. had acquired in the Spanish-American War – namely, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. The Court held that full constitutional protection of rights did not extend automatically to places under American control, and that the inhabitants of these territories – even if they were deemed U.S. citizens – could be denied certain constitutional rights.
The Insular Cases are widely considered to be racist and were heavily influenced by racist ideas that flourished at the start of the 20th century. One decision referred to the inhabitants of these territories as “savage tribes” and “uncivilized tribes,” and another suggested that since administration of “alien races” (e.g., Puerto Ricans and Filipinos) would be “impossible,” they should be ineligible for statehood.
However, these decisions have never been overruled by the Supreme Court and therefore they have remained enforceable law for the past 120 years.
In Fitisemmanu v. United States, several residents of American Samoa brought a lawsuit requesting that the Insular Cases be overruled and that people born in American Samoa be granted full U.S. citizenship. Currently, people born in American Samoa are not considered U.S. citizens, unlike those born in Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S Virgin Islands. Instead, they are considered “U.S. nationals,” who may work and travel in the U.S., but may not vote or run for federal office outside of American Samoa.
A federal district judge granted their request, but the decision was reversed on appeal by the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit before it was appealed to the Supreme Court. When the Supreme Court decides not to hear a case, the decision of the appeals court below it will remain in force, so the Insular Cases will continue to remain in effect.
As recently as this past spring, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that “it was past time to acknowledge” that the Insular cases “have no foundation in the Constitution and rest instead on racial stereotypes,” and Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the Insular Cases were “premised on beliefs both odious and wrong.” However, for reasons that have not been made public, a majority of the Justices declined to take the opportunity to follow Justice Gorsuch’s recommendation, and declined to hear the case.
