Igartua De La Rosa v. U.S.
| Citation | 107 F.Supp.2d 140 |
| Decision Date | 19 July 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. Civ.00-1421(JP).,Civ.00-1421(JP). |
| Parties | Gregorio IGARTUA DE LA ROSA, et al., Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico |
Gregorio Igartúa de la Rosa, Aguadilla, PR, for plaintiff.
Isabel Muñoz Acosta, Assistant United States Attorney, Hato Rey, PR, David S Mendel, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Washington, DC, for defendants.
The present political status of Puerto Rico has enslaved the United States citizens residing in Puerto Rico by preventing them from voting in Presidential and Congressional elections and therefore it is abhorrent to the most sacred of the basic safeguards contained in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States — freedom.
Plaintiffs in the instant action are comprised of two groups of United States citizens residing in Puerto Rico who seek from the Court a declaratory judgment allowing them to vote in the upcoming and subsequent Presidential elections. One group of Plaintiffs, comprised of individuals who have always resided in Puerto Rico, argues that they have a right to vote in Presidential elections because they are U.S. citizens and, as such, are vested with the inherent power to vote for those who represent them. The second group is comprised of former stateside residents who, while there, were eligible to vote in Presidential elections but became ineligible to do so upon taking up residence in Puerto Rico. Both groups argue that the United States Constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a treaty to which the United States is a party, guarantee their right to vote in Presidential elections. The second group also calls into question the constitutionality of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act ("UOCAVA" or "the Act"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 1973ff - 1973ff-6, that allows United States citizens residing outside the United States to vote in federal elections as absentee voters in their last state of residence.1 Under UOCAVA, Puerto Rico is considered to be within the United States. Therefore, those residing in Puerto Rico are not allowed to vote as absentee voters in federal elections under the Act.2
In this case, the United States has filed a Motion to Dismiss (docket No. 5), which Plaintiffs have opposed (docket No. 7), and to which the United States has replied.3 In the instant opinion, the Court considers these motions.
To fully understand the context within which this action is brought it is necessary to retrace the history of the relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico within the context of the unfulfilled promises of freedom made by the United States to the people of Puerto Rico. The relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States began on July 25, 1898, when American forces arrived in Guánica, Puerto Rico under the leadership of General Nelson Miles. General Miles proclaimed that the American forces came "bearing the banner of freedom" and would bring to the Puerto Ricans "the fostering arm of a nation of free people, whose greatest power is in justice and humanity to all those living within its fold." José A. Cabranes, Citizenship and the American Empire 19 (Yale Univ. Press 1979) (citing Constitution Establishing Self-Government in the Island of Puerto Rico by Spain 1897, reprinted in, Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Documents on the Constitutional History of Puerto Rico 55 (1964)). The American promise was to "bestow upon [the Puerto Ricans] the immunities and blessings of the liberal institutions of our Government ... [and] the advantages and blessings of enlightened civilization." Id. The "splendid little war," as the Spanish American War of 1898 was dubbed, resulted in the American acquisition of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.4 See Treaty of Paris, Dec. 30, 1898, 30 U.S.Stat. 1754. The freedoms and rights promised to the people of Puerto Rico would be dictated by Congress, pursuant to the Treaty of Paris. See id. at Art. IX, par. 2.
With the dawn of the Twentieth Century came the first Organic Act of Puerto Rico, commonly referred to as the Foraker Act, 31 Stat. 77 (). The Foraker Act ended two years of American Military governance and established a civil government in Puerto Rico. The Foraker Act, however, stopped short of granting U.S. citizenship to the residents of Puerto Rico. U.S. citizenship came to Puerto Rico seventeen years later with the passage of the Jones Act, 39 Stat. 951 (1917). The granting of U.S. citizenship under the Jones Act, however, did not guarantee the new U.S. citizens residing in Puerto Rico the full range of rights that their counterparts residing in the mainland enjoyed. The Supreme Court made this pronouncement in Balzac v. People of Porto Rico, 258 U.S. 298, 42 S.Ct. 343, 66 L.Ed. 627 (1922), ruling that the rights that accompany American citizenship are a function of the political status of the venue in question.
The Balzac Court found support for this proposition in a group of cases collectively known as the Insular Cases, which defined Puerto Rico's political status as an "unincorporated territory" of the United States. See Huus v. New York & P.R. Steamship Co., 182 U.S. 392, 21 S.Ct. 827, 45 L.Ed. 1146 (1901); Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244, 21 S.Ct. 770, 45 L.Ed. 1088 (1901); Armstrong v. United States, 182 U.S. 243, 21 S.Ct. 827, 45 L.Ed. 1086 (1901); Dooley v. United States, 182 U.S. 222, 21 S.Ct. 762, 45 L.Ed. 1074 (1901); Goetze v. United States, 182 U.S. 221, 21 S.Ct. 742, 45 L.Ed. 1065 (1901); De Lima v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 1, 21 S.Ct. 743, 45 L.Ed. 1041 (1901). This novel term referred more specifically to the extent to which the United States Constitution applied to Puerto Rico. According to Justice Brown in Downes, the extent to which the Constitution applied to Puerto Rico depended "in the nature of the government created by that instrument, in the opinion of its contemporaries, in the practical construction put upon it by Congress and in the decision of this Court." Downes, 182 U.S. at 249, 21 S.Ct. 770. Justice Brown further stated that, "the Island of Porto Rico is a territory appurtenant and belonging to the United States, but not a part of the United States." Id. at 287, 21 S.Ct. 770. In explaining the relationship, the Court, in this 1901 case, observed that the power of the United States to acquire territories, such as Puerto Rico, "implies not only the power to govern such territory, but to prescribe upon what terms the United States will receive its inhabitants and what status shall be in what Chief Justice Marshall termed the `American Empire.'" Id. at 279, 21 S.Ct. 770. The holdings of the Insular Cases and Balzac, however, stand at odds with the legislative intent driving the Jones Act, as it was believed that "the granting of citizenship to Puerto Ricans would entitle them to all the rights and privileges of such a status." See Juan R. Torruella, The Supreme Court and Puerto Rico: The Doctrine of Separate and Unequal 89 (Universidad de Puerto Rico ed., 1985).
The next development in the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States was the enactment of the U.S. Nationality Act of 1940, which made all persons born in Puerto Rico on or after January 13, 1941, and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, citizens of the United States at birth. See 8 U.S.C. § 1402. Subsequently, Congress passed Law 600, Pub.L. No. 81-600, 64 Stat. 319 (1950). See id. at 133. Law 600 repealed those portions of the Jones Act dealing with the structure and organization of the Island's government and allowed the people of Puerto Rico to draft their own constitution. Although Law 600 may have provided for the ratification of a local constitution, it has been decided that Puerto Rico remained and remains an unincorporated territory of the United States under the territorial clause of the Constitution. See Harris v. Rosario, 446 U.S. 651, 100 S.Ct. 1929, 64 L.Ed.2d 587 (1980). The fact that Puerto Rico is dubbed a Commonwealth is irrelevant as, "the commonwealth of Puerto Rico is a `territory' within the constitutional provision empowering Congress to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other people belonging to the United States." Americana of Puerto Rico, Inc. v. Kaplus, 368 F.2d 431 (3d Cir.1966); see also Dávila-Pérez v. Lockheed Martin Corp., 202 F.3d 464, 468 (1st Cir.2000) (). Under the territorial clause, Congress has the "Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory and other Property belonging to the United States." U.S. Const. art. IV, § 3, cl. 2. Thus, Congress may limit the freedoms which U.S. citizens residing in Puerto Rico may enjoy. In Downes, however, the Supreme Court concluded that constitutional provisions pertaining to "those fundamental limitations in favor of personal rights which were formulated in the Constitution and in its amendments" would automatically apply to any territory. Downes, 182 U.S. at 269, 21 S.Ct. 770. In this way, fundamental rights extend to Puerto Rico.
The present political status of Puerto Rico represents a deviation from the original road upon which the Island embarked vis-à-vis its relationship with the United States. At the turn of the Twentieth Century, it became "evident that both of the political parties of the country were now in substantial agreement that Puerto Rico would become a part of the Union." Cabranes, supra at 31 (citing Cong.Rec.2000-01 (1900) (remarks of Rep. Newlands)). In 1899, Senator Foraker introduced a bill to grant American citizenship to...
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