吃瓜大本营

In our brief, we take no position on the merits of the particular dispute but instead argue that the Supreme Court should use this opportunity to overturn the Insular Cases, a series of early 20th century decisions that grant residents of Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories second-class status under the Constitution.

Reviewing the history of the Insular Cases鈥攈ow they grant Congress plenary powers over unincorporated territories like Puerto Rico and limit full constitutional protection of rights to all residents of such territories鈥攚e argue that they 鈥渁re a glaring anomaly in the fabric of our constitutional law.鈥� And because the Insular Cases explicitly rest on outdated racist assumptions about the inferiority of 鈥渁lien races,鈥� they depart in unprincipled ways from the fundamental constitutional tenet of limited government.