In the past several weeks, the importance and power of symbols in the United States have become exceedingly clear. In the wake of the massacre of nine African-American churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., the Confederate flag has been condemned across the country. As millions of Americans herald marriage equality across all 50 states, the rainbow flag serves as a visual marker of acceptance and progress.
Across the country and the world, the American flag reminds citizens of the United States of the unequivocal rights granted to them by the Constitution — except for nearly four million of them who happen to live in the U.S. Island territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Marianas and the U.S. Virgin Islands. American Samoans are the only American-soil-born people who are classified as U.S. nationals rather than as citizens.
Americans born in any of these territories are not granted the right to vote for president or representation by a voting member in the House of Representatives. For them, the American flag serves as a reminder that they are not first class citizens and are not equal to other Americans under the law. To address this disparity between principle and practice, all people born on American soil should be granted the full rights of citizenship, which includes the right to vote. In other words, the Constitution should most certainly follow the flag.
In the Supreme Court decision Downes v. Bidwell, Justice Henry Billings Brown wrote, “those possessions are inhabited by alien races, differing from us in religion, customs, laws” as well as “modes of thought” deeming that inhabitants of territories acquiesced during the Spanish American War may be unable to understand “Anglo-Saxon principles” and thus may be denied full Constitutional rights and statehood. Downes v. Bidwell and the other “Insular Cases” established the precedent that territories could be acquired by, but not incorporated into, the United States.
This kind of racist and imperialist logic is perhaps unsurprising for the year 1901, the year of Downes v. Bidwell. However, this decision — along with the other Insular Cases — remains the foundation for denying Americans born in the territories full rights. This hypocrisy has not gone unnoticed by residents of these territories, 120,000 of whom are U.S. Army veterans. In Puerto Rico, for example, there has been a widespread movement toward statehood — largely ignored in the mainstream American political discussion.
Citizens (and American Samoans) should be granted full constitutional rights wherever the American flag flies. These territories have been treated — both in law as well as in public consciousness — as peripheral for too long. John Oliver, in a scathing segment on this issue, points out how Justice Sonia Sotomayor has been described in the media as having been raised by “Puerto Rican immigrants” despite the fact that Puerto Rico is part of the United States. As has been demonstrated throughout American history, institutions define what is important, what is alien and what is equal in this country. Granting the full rights of citizenship to the residents of U.S. territories will redefine these Americans as important in the eyes of both government officials and Americans living in the 50 states. The next question to address will be whether these territories should be granted statehood. However, before focusing on this geopolitical question, we should address the hypocrisy of denying representation to any citizen of the United States.
President Obama, following the Supreme Court’s decision on marriage equality, said the “project of each generation is to bridge the meaning of those founding words [‘we are all created equal’] with the realities of changing times.” This project means reevaluating and reforming outdated legislation and practices, which rely on logic that is evidently backwards in 2015. In order to remain true to this project, all American citizens should be granted equal opportunity to vote for the leaders of this country, who are charged with representing the will of the people. We are a generation that has attempted to define ourselves as accepting and forward-thinking. For us, precedent can no longer be an acceptable rationalization for institutions that allow the denial of human rights, as well as the rights of all Americans.
Mary Russo is a Senior Associate Editor for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at m.russo@cavalierdaily.com.
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