Federal Policy and U.S. Territories: The Political Restructuring of the United States of America

Abstract

JN VIOLATION OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION, the legislative and executive branches of the federal government have altered the political structure of the United States of America. 1 Beginning in 1952, Congress has enacted specific pieces of legislation, subsequently signed into law by the presidents in office, which have transformed the United States from a well-defined political union, whose member possessed equal powers, into two hierarchies of unequal parts and ambiguous political relationships.2 Whereas the Constitution explicitly recognizes only states as the legal components of the union, Congress has created a new political category the non-statehood status. Within this murky zone lying between formal statehood and official independence, a spectrum of political standings has been devised commonwealth, free association, unincorporated and organized territory, and unincorporated and unorganized territory. Into this graded, political limbo the federal government has consigned the eight insular territorial possessions of the United States American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, the Marshall Islands, the Northern Marianas, Palau, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Currently, there is a bill before the U.S. Congress (H.R. 98) which seeks to elevate the status of Guam to the level of a commonwealth. The powers advocated for this commonwealth include: immigration control, a veto on federal laws in Guam, and joint consultation between Guam and the U. S. government on American defense policy for that region of the Pacific. If passed, this would establish yet another commonwealth in addition to the Northern Marianas and Puerto Rico. As envisioned, each of the three commonwealths will be different in the scope of their jurisdictions.