Rep. Ra\u00fal Grijalva (D-Arizona), who chairs the Natural Resources Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives in the U.S. Congress, and six of his House colleagues wrote Attorney General Merrick Garland and acting solicitor general Brian Fletcher yesterday, calling on the Department of Justice to expressly condemn the\u00a0Insular Cases, a series of racist Supreme Court decisions the Justice Department has continued to rely upon when defending federal statutes that discriminate against residents of U.S. territories.<\/p>\n
The letter, available online at\u00a0https:\/\/bit.ly\/3jWJ6Tj,\u00a0comes as the DOJ prepares to argue two key federal cases that will define the legal rights of residents of U.S. territories for years to come.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Insular Cases\u00a0are a series of\u00a0Plessy-era Supreme Court rulings that, in part, created the \u201cterritorial incorporation doctrine,\u201d which establishes that the Constitution does not fully apply to the U.S. territories. These cases used racist and offensive language such as \u201chalf-civilized\u201d and \u201calien races\u201d to describe residents of the territories and justify the denial of the constitutional rights and protections they should be entitled to as U.S. citizens and U.S. nationals.<\/p>\n
Neil Weare, president and founder of Equally American, a nonpartisan public interest organization that works to advance equality and civil rights in U.S. territories, said, \u201cI applaud Chairman Grijalva and the Members of Congress who are calling on the Biden-Harris Justice Department to advance their commitment to the Constitution and racial equality by forcefully rejecting any continued reliance on the\u00a0Insular Cases.\u201d <\/p>\n
Their letter to the Justice Department includes the following excerpts:<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cThe time is now for the Justice Department to reject the\u00a0Insular Cases\u00a0and the racism they and the territorial incorporation doctrine represent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cThe Justice Department should ask itself whether it wants to remain complicit in the racism inherent in the Insular Cases by continuing to perpetuate the \u2018separate and unequal\u2019 status facing residents of U.S. territories. Our nation deserves better, and the people of the territories deserve better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter highlights how, in the coming weeks, the DOJ will have to express its view on the\u00a0Insular Cases\u00a0in two high-profile filings before the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. <\/p>\n
The first case,\u00a0U.S. v. Vaello Madero, involves the denial of Supplemental Security Income for residents of territories. The second case,\u00a0Fitisemanu v. United States, addresses whether people born in territories have a right to citizenship.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Chair Grijalva\u2019s letter emphasizes, the Biden-Harris Justice Department has a clear choice in these cases: either expressly condemn the\u00a0Insular Cases\u00a0or remain complicit in perpetuating the ugly racial inequality they established,\u201d Weare said. \u201cIt\u2019s long past time for the Justice Department to get on the right side of history here.\u201d<\/p>\n
In March, Grijalva helped introduce a\u00a0bipartisan resolution\u00a0that similarly called on the courts, DOJ, and other litigants to reject any continued reliance on the\u00a0Insular Cases\u00a0in present and future cases. The Natural Resources Committee hosted a\u00a0legislative hearing\u00a0in May to discuss this resolution, which included testimony from elected officials from the territories and academic scholars. <\/p>\n
The committee also held an\u00a0oversight hearing\u00a0in July to discuss the extension of key federal benefits programs like SSI, SNAP and Medicaid to the U.S. territories within the president\u2019s fiscal year 2022 budget.
\nThe Supreme Court also announced yesterday that\u00a0Vaello Madero\u00a0will be argued in-person, in front of the Justices at the Supreme Court on Nov.9, 2021. (Saipan Tribune)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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