Resolution rejecting U.S. Supreme Court Insular Cases heard
Joe Taitano II
A hearing was held Wednesday for Resolution 56, introduced by Vice Speaker Tina Muña Barnes, which would throw in support for a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives that calls for the rejection of the “Insular Cases.”
The cases are race-based U.S. Supreme Court rulings from the early 1900s that have been used to deny equal rights to residents of the territories. They state that constitutional protections and political equality may not apply to the U.S. territories, which are home to “alien races” unable to be governed “according to Anglo-Saxon principles.”