THE ETHICS OF TERRITORIES: THE UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF PUERTO RICO’S STATUS AS AN UNINCORPORATED TERRITORY

The fourteenth amendment of the United States Constitution states that all persons “born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens. The island of Puerto Rico has been a territory of the U.S. since 1898, after it was acquired following the conclusion of the Spanish-American War. Subsequently, the citizens of Puerto Rico are considered U.S. citizens, however, there are certain constraints to that citizenship. The Insular Cases, a series of Supreme Court Opinions from 1901, decided the status of the territories acquired following the conclusion of the Spanish-American War (i.e. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines). Through these opinions, the Court created a distinction between incorporated and unincorporated territories. Despite their citizenship, citizens of unincorporated territories are not afforded the same rights and privileges of mainland citizens. In this paper, Puerto Rico will be used as a case study to determine not only the ethics of maintaining territories, but also the constitutionality of partial incorporation of such territories.