WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: Insular Cases 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:05.280 Happy Saturday. Coming up on the show, we have an 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:08.760 episode about citizenship in the US and who is allowed 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:12.239 to become a citizen that has some connections to our 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:16.120 August fourteenth, twenty twenty three episode on the Insular Cases, 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:18.840 which was a set of Supreme Court cases related to 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:22.720 island territories claimed by the US, and that is today's 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:26.560 Saturday classic. In this episode, we mentioned the case of 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.639 Isabelle Gonzalez, and I mentioned wishing I had focused the 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:34.080 whole episode on her case before the Supreme Court. We 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:36.400 did do that episode not long after this when it 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:39.400 came out on September twentieth, twenty twenty three. And this 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:43.680 episode also briefly mentions the Philippines becoming independent from the 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.040 US after World War Two, and we talked about that 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:48.760 more in our episode on Marie Arosa on May eighth, 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:54.640 twenty twenty four. But enjoy Welcome to Stuff You Missed 0:00:54.640 --> 0:01:05.080 in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:08.520 to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:12.440 Today we're going to talk about some US Supreme Court cases, 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:17.240 although not comical ones like Nicks versus Headen, which we 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:21.080 covered recently and was about tomatoes. We are going to 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:25.120 be talking more about tariffs, though this time. It's a 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:29.920 collection of cases that followed the Spanish American War, and 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:33.039 these cases together limited the rights of people living in 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:37.559 certain US territories. These cases still stand today. They still 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.399 affect the lives and civil rights of people in places 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:45.280 like American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:48.760 and the US Virgin Islands. So people who were born 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:52.360 in all of these territories, with the exception of American Samoa, 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:57.720 are considered US citizens by birth, but while living on 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:01.400 any of these Annamese island ritories, they don't have the 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:05.200 same constitutional rights or representation in Congress as citizens who 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:08.040 live in one of the fifty States. Some of those 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:11.880 court cases involved the Philippines also, that was a US 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:15.600 territory at the time but has since become independent. So 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:18.960 together these cases are known as the Insular cases with 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.560 insular meaning related to islands, and they were in the 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:26.280 news last year because the US Supreme Court declined to 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:31.200 her case that was challenging them. Before we start with this, 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:34.399 I want to note there's a whole range of opinion 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:38.520 in all of these places about their relationships to the 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:43.079 United States, Like, for example, there are American Samoans who 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:46.360 think that they should be considered US citizens from birth, 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:49.480 but then others who think that would erase their existing 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:53.360 culture and traditions. Or as another example, there is a 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:57.840 movement for Puerto Rican statehood that's been going on for decades, 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:00.480 but there are also people who opposed that move met, 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:04.079 with some of the opponents advocating instead for an independent 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:09.040 Puerto Rico. So this episode is really focused on the 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:11.880 court cases and the context around them. It is not 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:16.079 about the lived experiences and opinions of the people living 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:18.280 in all of these territories. I don't think the two 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:20.040 of us are the best people to try to like 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.280 embody that no, and even if we were, I feel 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.880 like that is a podcast of its own and not 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:29.799 an episode of art, not an episode of ours. For sure, 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:32.679 Before we talk about these cases, we need to set 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:35.520 the stage on how the US had approached its territories 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:39.600 before the Spanish American War. The original borders of the 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.840 United States were set under the seventeen eighty three Treaty 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:46.840 of Paris, which formally ended the Revolutionary War between Britain 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:51.240 and its North American colonies. This treaty did not acknowledge 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:54.160 the indigenous nations and peoples who had been in North 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:58.320 America for thousands of years prior to europeans arrival, or 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:02.240 contain any reference to born of their own lands and territory. 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:07.000 For a time, the Articles of Confederation formed the basis 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:10.400 for the US government. These were ultimately replaced by the 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:14.400 US Constitution, which went into effect on March fourth, seventeen 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:20.400 eighty nine. The Constitution didn't include anything specifically about adding 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:23.719 new territory to the United States, but it did include 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:28.880 language about adding states an Article four, Section three quote, 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.520 New states may be admitted by the Congress into this Union. 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:36.120 But no new state shall be formed or erected within 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:39.599 the jurisdiction of any other state, nor any state be 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:42.480 formed by the junction of two or more states or 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:46.480 parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:51.000 the states concerned, as well as of the Congress. Section 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:55.080 three also included language about territory that was not considered 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:58.159 part of a state. Quote, the Congress shall have power 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.000 to dispose of and make all needs needful rules and 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:05.440 regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:09.080 United States, and nothing in this Constitution shall be so 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.960 construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:18.000 or any particular state. Soon, new states were being added 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:20.919 to the Union. The first state that wasn't one of 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:24.920 the thirteen original colonies was Vermont in seventeen ninety one. 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:29.120 Kentucky became a state in seventeen ninety two from land 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:33.719 that had previously been considered part of Virginia. Tennessee became 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:37.240 a state four years later, formed from the Southwest Territory 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.039 that was land that North Carolina had ceded to the 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:44.480 federal government. Ohio joined the Union in eighteen oh three 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:48.320 and was formed from part of the Northwest Territory. With 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:52.040 the exception of Vermont, which had considered itself an independent 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:56.560 republic before becoming a state, these newly added states had 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:00.200 all been formed from organized incorporated territory that it was 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:03.279 already considered to be within the US borders under the 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:07.320 Treaty of Paris. So incorporated in this case means that 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.520 the territory is considered to be fully part of the 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:13.680 US under the Constitution, and the only parts of the 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:18.200 Constitution that don't apply to incorporated territory are articles that 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:23.400 specifically apply to the states. Organized means that Congress had 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:27.320 passed an organic act or a body of laws establishing 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:30.760 a government, and usually a bill of rights for the territory. So, 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:35.640 for example, the Northwest Territory was unorganized before Congress passed 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:39.919 the Northwest Ordinances. The Northwest Ordinances of seventeen eighty seven 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:43.400 also outlined a process for the territory to be admitted 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.800 into the Union as no less than three and no 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:51.280 more than five states. When the United States started acquiring 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:56.799 new territory, that new territory was also incorporated. The first 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:59.480 big addition of land to the United States was the 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:03.520 Louisiana Purchase in eighteen oh three. The Treaty of Session 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.680 that was part of the Louisiana Purchase agreement said, quote, 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:11.080 the inhabitants of the sated Territory shall be incorporated in 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:14.440 the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:17.760 as possible according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:21.560 to the enjoyment of all these rights, advantages, and immunities 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:26.400 of citizens of the United States. Florida was also incorporated 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:28.720 when it became part of the United States under the 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:31.840 Adam Zonice Treaty, which took effect in eighteen twenty one. 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:36.120 States formed from these territories were added to the Union, 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:39.600 following the same basic template that had been outlined in 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:43.720 the Northwest Ordinance of seventeen eighty seven. As the nineteenth 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:47.920 century continued, the United States approach to expansion was described 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:52.200 as manifest destiny. That's a term first used in writing 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:55.160 in eighteen forty five as part of an argument that 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:59.040 the United States should annex the Republic of Texas. This 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:02.440 came to mean the United States was destined to expand 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.920 across the whole of North America, and this idea framed 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:10.600 the United States expansion as necessary and inevitable, and as 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:14.400 the nation's duty. This also was connected to a series 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:19.240 of removals, wars, and genocidal policies against the indigenous nations 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:22.200 of North America, in which tens of thousands of people 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:25.080 were forced to leave their homelands and move to land 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:29.440 known as Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River, primarily 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:33.880 in what is now Oklahoma. Support for the philosophy of 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:38.319 manifest destiny was not as universal as it sometimes described. 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.680 There were people within and outside of the US government 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:46.120 who argued against such aggressive expansion, and there were people 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:50.320 of a range of backgrounds, races, ethnicities, and religions who 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.480 didn't want the place they were already living to be 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:56.920 annexed or purchased by the United States for all kinds 0:08:56.960 --> 0:09:01.280 of reasons. Thousands of indigenous people also died as a 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:04.400 result of the force removals that were involved in making 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:08.600 way for this expansion. But the underlying assumption was that 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:12.400 any territory the US was acquiring would become one or 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.760 more states. Assumption is not even a strong enough word. 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:20.280 It was obvious and unquestioned that newly acquired territory would 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:23.880 be admitted into the Union as states. There were debates 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:27.400 about whether slavery would be allowed in newly organized territory 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:31.400 and newly admitted states, and a number of compromises and 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:35.720 appeasements maintained a balance between slave states and free states 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:39.160 in Congress, but there was really no debate about whether 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:42.400 this new territory was on a path to statehood. There 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:46.600 was no sense at all that a territory could be unincorporated. 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:51.240 The only real exception to this pattern involved the islands 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.440 that were claimed under the Guano Islands Act of eighteen 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:59.559 fifty six. This act allowed US citizens to claim uninhabited 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:03.320 islands as sources of guano or bird poop, so these 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:06.160 islands didn't need to be incorporated they did not have 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:11.400 a permanent human population. Alaska's status was also kind of 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:14.240 vague for a while after the US purchased it from 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.640 Russia in eighteen sixty seven. The US made this purchase 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:20.840 just two years after the end of the Civil War, 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.720 it was still in the middle of trying to rebuild itself. 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:27.480 In Secretary of State William H. Seward's decision to buy 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:33.240 Alaska was widely criticized and lampooned. Alaska was organized as 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:37.280 the District of Alaska in eighteen eighty four, but at 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:41.000 the very end of the nineteenth century, the United States 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:45.839 acquired territory that it didn't necessarily want to incorporate. We're 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:48.240 going to get to that after we have a sponsor break. 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:02.400 The United States approach to its territories really shifted during 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:07.640 and after the Spanish American War. This war evolved from 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:11.400 Cuba's struggle for independence from Spain, and it was also 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:15.719 influenced by sensationalized news reporting in the United States and 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.600 the explosion of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor on 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:23.880 February fifteenth, eighteen ninety eight. The Treaty of Paris that 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:28.240 formally ended the Spanish American War was signed on December tenth, 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:32.160 eighteen ninety eight. It recognized Cuba as an independent nation 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:36.280 while giving the United States control of Puerto Rico and Guam. 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:39.760 Under the treaty, the United States was also allowed to 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:43.520 purchase the Philippines from Spain, which it did, although the 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:47.559 Philippines had declared its own independence, and the US takeover 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.960 of the Philippines sparked the two year Philippine American War. 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:54.440 There are many treaties of Paris. This is obviously a 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:58.000 different one than the one that formerly ended the Revolutionary War. 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:01.480 Paris is where all the cool treaties, where we always 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:05.520 go to negotiate a peace. I mean, yeah, any excuse 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:08.960 to go to Paris. While the Spanish American War was ongoing, 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:13.480 the United States had also annexed Hawaii. For some very 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.920 brief context on that, in eighteen seventy five, the US 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:20.160 and the Kingdom of Hawaii had signed a reciprocity treaty 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:24.120 that allowed Hawaii to freely export goods like sugar, to 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.719 the US. In exchange, the US took control of an 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:31.040 area known as Puuloa, now home to the Pearl Harbor 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:34.800 Naval Base. This treaty led to a huge explosion in 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:38.840 the sugar industry in Hawaii, driven by US business interests, 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:44.400 which made the Hawaiian economy increasingly dependent on these exports. Then, 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.600 in eighteen ninety three, Sandford Dole, a lawyer who was 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:51.040 born in Hawaii to American parents, led a committee of 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:55.559 sugar planters and other American businessmen to overthrow the Hawaiian 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:59.760 monarchy with the backing of the US military. Dole petitioned 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:03.120 the US to annex Hawaii in eighteen ninety four, and 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.320 one reason the US did so four years later was 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:09.080 to ensure that it did not lose control of Pearl 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:12.800 Harbor while fighting a war with Spain. That is like 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:17.760 the most brief abridged synopsis, and we're about to have 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:21.600 another one, because then in eighteen ninety nine, the US 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:27.240 took control of part of the Samoan Archipelago, again incredibly briefly. 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:30.960 In the nineteenth century, Germany, Britain, and the US all 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:36.160 established business interests in Samoa and became heavily involved in 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:41.880 Samoan politics. Each of these nations backed different political factions, 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:44.680 and when a civil war began in eighteen eighty nine, 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:47.240 one side was backed by the US and the other 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:51.320 was backed by Germany. The first phase of fighting ended 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:54.960 in eighteen eighty nine, mostly because most of the Western 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.000 Powers ships were either damaged or destroyed in a cyclone. 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:02.360 Violence resumed in eighteen ninety three, continuing for about a year, 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:07.360 again with Germany and the US backing opposing factions. Then, 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:11.760 when maritoa lal Peppe, leader of Samoa died in eighteen 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:15.960 ninety eight, the Chief Justice who issued the decision on 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:21.040 who his successor would be was an American citizen, so 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:25.800 a lot of Samoans and Germans in Samoa opposed this decision. 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:30.800 This led to renewed hostilities. Ultimately, Britain, the United States, 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:36.000 and Germany negotiated the Tripartite Convention without the involvement of Samoans, 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:40.840 and this partitioned the archipelago between the United States and Germany. 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:45.360 Just as a note, German Samoa was placed under control 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.400 of New Zealand after World War One. It became independent 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:53.280 in nineteen sixty two. The US portion still US territory, 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:57.320 so By eighteen ninety nine, the US had taken control 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:01.640 of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and part of Samoa, 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:04.480 and it had a number of reasons to want access 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:08.440 to territory in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Many of 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:12.360 these islands had strategic military importance and could also serve 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:16.800 as refueling points for trading ships. Investors saw range of 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:21.440 agricultural and commercial opportunities. This was also happening as the 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.560 Panama Canal was being built, a project that the US 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:27.680 took over just a few years after taking control of 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.440 these new territories, so people were seeing new potential for 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:35.680 international shipping. There was also an argument for the US 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:39.040 to take over these islands that was explicitly racist, that 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:42.280 they were not capable of governing themselves, so the United 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:46.480 States needed to take them over. An argument not to 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:50.000 keep control of all of these islands was also racist. 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:53.680 There were basically people who didn't want islands full of 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:58.280 people who were predominantly indigenous or Hispanic to suddenly become 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:03.080 US citizens. In some cases, religious prejudice was also a factor, 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:07.120 since some of these areas were predominantly Catholic. This can 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:10.400 seem like an odd argument considering that the US had 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:14.280 already incorporated a lot of territory in North America that 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:18.600 had previously been colonized by Spain and had some demographic 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.160 similarities to these islands, like under the Treaty of Guadalupe 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.960 Hidalgo that ended the Mexican American War in eighteen forty eight, 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:29.840 Mexico ceded more than half its territory to the US. 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.120 People living there had been given a year to decide 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:35.680 if they wanted to become US citizens, and by the 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:39.240 time the Spanish American War ended, multiple states had been 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:44.960 formed from that territory. But as an example, when California 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:48.680 became a state in eighteen fifty, formed from territory that 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:52.080 had been part of Mexico, it had a population of 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:55.800 about ninety two thousand people. Meanwhile, at the end of 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:58.840 the Spanish American War, the population of Puerto Rico was 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:02.720 more than ten times that, and there were roughly seven 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:07.280 million people living in the Philippines. The entire United States 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:10.480 population at this point was about seventy six million people, 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.400 So there were a lot of people who just completely 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:16.920 freaked out about the idea that if the Philippines became 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:19.879 a state, Filipinos would make up almost ten percent of 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:23.440 the population of the United States. Also, with the exception 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:27.640 of Puerto Rico, these newly acquired islands were geographically very 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:30.919 far from continental North America, and that added to the 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:34.760 perception that they were more foreign than something like the 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:39.159 southwestern part of the continent. Was Also, to be clear, 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:42.840 we're not suggesting that racism and prejudice were directed only 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:46.400 at the people in these newly acquired island territories, or 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:49.000 that everyone living in the continental US had the same 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:53.160 constitutional rights at this point. As examples after the US 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:57.160 Civil War, the fourteenth Amendment had granted citizenship to anyone 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:00.919 born or naturalized in the United States and subject to 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:04.760 US jurisdiction, and the fifteenth Amendment had given black men 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:08.360 the right to vote, but in practice, many black men 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:11.359 could not freely exercise their right to vote, and women 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:13.960 did not have a constitutional right to vote at all. 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:18.960 Native Americans were not considered US citizens, and immigrants from 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:23.240 many Asian countries were banned from becoming citizens. So the 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:27.120 idea that the US might apply constitutional rights and protections 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:30.520 only to some people also was not at all new. 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:33.480 What was new was the idea that the US could 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:39.199 acquire territory without that territory ultimately becoming a state. That 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.040 is where we get to these Supreme Court cases. On 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:45.440 May twenty seventh, nineteen oh one, the US Supreme Court 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:49.240 issued its decision in six cases that had all been 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:52.760 argued over the course of nineteen hundred and nineteen oh one. 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:55.800 Most of these were related to Puerto Rico. There was 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:59.000 also one case relating to Hawaii and one related to 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:05.160 the Philippines. Some constitutional law scholars frame these six decisions 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:09.000 as the core insular cases. There are others who include 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:12.200 two other cases that were decided in December of that 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.720 same year. There are others who include a lot more 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.439 cases that were decided over the next two decades, for 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:21.040 up to a total of thirty five cases. So like 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:24.000 the argument over which cases are the insular cases can 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:28.840 really vary depending on whose opinions you're reading. The idea 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:31.040 that at least some of these cases would be grouped 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.320 together as the insular cases was there right from the beginning. 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:38.200 Some of the Court's opinions collectively refer to the Insular 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:41.879 tariff cases. In February of nineteen oh one, after the 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:44.960 cases had been argued, but before they were decided, the 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:48.560 House of Representatives passed a resolution calling for the briefs 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.200 and arguments from five of the cases to be printed 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:55.680 together as a book called The Insular Cases. That book 0:19:56.119 --> 0:20:00.440 is one thousand and seventy five pages long, little light reading. Yeah, 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:02.240 clearly we're not going to be talking about all of 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:07.400 these cases in detail to quickly tick through these nineteen 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:10.000 oh one cases. That's not just the first six, it's 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:13.560 the other two as well. One outlier was Who's versus 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:17.439 New York and Puerto Rico Steamship Company. This looked at 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:20.760 the question of whether Puerto Rican ports were domestic or 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:24.400 foreign ports in the context of US shipping law and 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:29.080 New York laws around the pilotage of nautical vessels. Most 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:32.840 of the other cases addressed the core question of whether 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:36.679 Puerto Rico, Hawaii, or the Philippines should be considered a 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:41.240 foreign country in terms of tariff law. These cases were 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:46.280 de Lima versus Bidwell, Gutsa versus United States, Armstrong versus 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:50.840 United States, two different cases called Duly versus United States, 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:56.560 and fourteen Diamond Rings versus United States. These cases all 0:20:56.600 --> 0:21:00.600 involved similar scenarios. A person or business had been required 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:03.680 to pay a duty, or had something seized by customs, 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:06.480 but they argued that no duties or fees should have 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:10.080 been required or customs should not have seized the goods 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:12.880 since the goods had not come from a foreign country. 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:16.600 The Court issued decisions in these cases establishing that none 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:19.760 of these places were foreign countries in the context of 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:24.040 tariff law, unless the duty had been imposed before the 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:27.800 United States annexed them. The last of these nineteen oh 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:30.240 one cases, not in terms of time, decided, just in 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:33.960 terms of us talking about them, was Downs versus Bidwell, 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:37.000 and that looked at whether parts of the Forker Act 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:41.560 were constitutional. The Forker Act, also called the Puerto Rico 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:45.080 Organic Act, had been passed in April of nineteen hundred. 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:50.280 Among its many provisions, the Forker Act established a fifteen 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:53.760 percent tariff on goods that were imported into Puerto Rico 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:58.880 from the United States and vice versa. But Article one, 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:03.480 Section eight, Clause one of the US Constitution, known as 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:09.320 the Uniformity Clause, requires that quote all duties, imports, and 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:15.399 excises shall be uniform throughout the United States. So if 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:20.320 throughout the United States included Puerto Rico, it was unconstitutional 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:24.159 for it to have this separate tariff. The Supreme Court's 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:28.040 plurality decision was that no, the Foriker Act was not 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:33.560 unconstitutional because while Puerto Rico belonged to the United States, 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:38.520 it was not part of the United States. Of all 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:42.520 these cases, Delima versus Bidwell and Downs versus Bidwell have 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:46.119 gotten the most attention in terms of study and analysis, 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:50.159 and Downs versus Bidwell in particular has become notorious for 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:53.080 its racist language. We're going to get into more on 0:22:53.240 --> 0:23:06.080 that after a sponsor break. As we noted before the break, 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:08.840 in nineteen oh one, the US Supreme Court issued a 0:23:08.840 --> 0:23:12.400 decision in Downs versus Bidwell that described Puerto Rico as 0:23:12.480 --> 0:23:16.359 belonging to the United States but not part of it. 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:21.959 Downs versus Bidwell also established a distinction between incorporated and 0:23:22.760 --> 0:23:28.480 unincorporated territory. As we talked about in the first part 0:23:28.520 --> 0:23:30.240 of this shit like, this was a new idea. This 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:32.520 was not how the United States had been doing it before. 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:36.800 In the words of a concurring opinion by Justice Horace Gray, quote, 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:40.800 so long as Congress has not incorporated the territory into 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:45.400 the United States, neither military occupation nor session by treaty 0:23:45.520 --> 0:23:49.280 makes the conquered territory domestic territory in the sense of 0:23:49.320 --> 0:23:54.160 the revenue laws, but those laws concerning foreign countries remain 0:23:54.240 --> 0:23:58.840 applicable to the conquered territory until changed by Congress. If 0:23:58.880 --> 0:24:02.600 Congress is not to construct a complete government for the 0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:06.240 conquered territory, it may establish a temporary government which is 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:10.680 not subject to all the restrictions of the Constitution. That 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:15.400 doesn't sound like a fat loophole at all. In other words, 0:24:15.480 --> 0:24:19.360 Puerto Rico and by extension, the other island territories were 0:24:19.440 --> 0:24:23.040 not foreign countries in terms of tariff law, but also 0:24:23.119 --> 0:24:25.720 were not part of the United States in any way 0:24:25.760 --> 0:24:29.960 that would bring them under the Constitution's uniformity clause. This 0:24:30.200 --> 0:24:34.360 decision sort of read into various parts of the Constitution 0:24:34.640 --> 0:24:39.520 and previous court decisions, arguing that you really couldn't infer 0:24:39.640 --> 0:24:44.520 from the Constitution that territories were part of the United States, 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:50.200 like the thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery quote 0:24:50.560 --> 0:24:54.000 within the United States or in any place subject to 0:24:54.040 --> 0:24:57.600 their jurisdiction. So, according to this argument, that had to 0:24:57.640 --> 0:25:01.320 mean there were places that were subject to US jurisdiction 0:25:01.520 --> 0:25:05.720 but were not part of the United States or in 0:25:05.760 --> 0:25:10.000 the Fourteenth Amendment. Quote, all persons born or naturalized in 0:25:10.080 --> 0:25:13.640 the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are 0:25:13.760 --> 0:25:16.920 citizens of the United States and the state wherein they reside. 0:25:17.800 --> 0:25:21.280 So in the Court's view that suggested that in the 0:25:21.400 --> 0:25:25.520 United States and subject to US jurisdiction could be two 0:25:25.760 --> 0:25:30.040 totally different things. To quote from the plurality opinion authored 0:25:30.119 --> 0:25:33.679 by Justice Henry Billings Brown quote, we are also of 0:25:33.720 --> 0:25:36.879 the opinion that the power to acquire territory by treaty 0:25:37.000 --> 0:25:40.719 implies not only the power to govern such territory, but 0:25:40.760 --> 0:25:44.040 to prescribe upon what terms the United States will receive 0:25:44.080 --> 0:25:47.159 its inhabitants and what their status shall be in what 0:25:47.280 --> 0:25:51.639 Chief Justice Marshall termed the American Empire. There seems to 0:25:51.680 --> 0:25:54.960 be no middle ground between this position and the doctrine 0:25:54.960 --> 0:25:58.840 that if their inhabitants do not become immediately upon annexation 0:25:59.160 --> 0:26:03.000 citizens of the unit United States, their children thereafter born, 0:26:03.400 --> 0:26:07.440 whether savages or civilized, are such and entitled to all 0:26:07.480 --> 0:26:11.760 the rights, privileges, and immunities of citizens. If such be 0:26:11.880 --> 0:26:16.840