Editor’s note: This is the first installment in the Stranded by Status series, which hopes to shed light on how federal policies and Judicial decisions inhibit the development and success of the United States unincorporated territories.
On January 3, 2025, Delegate Stacey Plaskett (D) of the United States Virgin Islands stood before the US House of Representatives regarding the potential re-election of Representative Mike Johnson (R) of Louisiana as Speaker of the House. Yet, instead of continuing the vote tally, Plaskett asked for time to speak and took an opportunity to address the oppressive nature of the Insular Cases, which have kept the territories in the shadow of the United States for over 120 years. Regarding the inability of territorial delegates to vote, Plaskett stated, “This body and this nation has a territories and a colonies problem. What was supposed to be temporary has now, effectively, become permanent.”
“I have a voice!”
Insular Cases and the current state of the islands
After the conclusion of the Spanish-American war in 1898, the Supreme Court passed a series of rulings concerning American territories entitled the Insular Cases, which essentially allowed the United States complete jurisdiction over many US territories, such as Puerto Rico and Guam. The Supreme Court ruled that the people of these territories should not be entitled to the same Constitutional rights as American mainland citizens. In a 1901 case, Justice Edward Douglass White justified the acquisition of the territories, saying the United States was entirely in the right to take “an unknown island, peopled with an uncivilized race.”
The ‘unincorporated territories’ are not given voting representation in Congress or for president and cannot impact change within our governmental system as a direct result. Statistical inequities are also present in the territories, with a recent GAO (Government Accountability Office) study demonstrating that the territories are often excluded from product reports in addition to major governmental programs like Medicaid. Consequently, the insular areas are poorly represented and receive poor funding based on inaccurate, antiquated surveys and metrics. The result of poorly implemented federal policymaking and the detrimental effects of the Insular Cases is five islands stranded by status and 3.6 million people without a voice.
Plaskett pushback
While Plaskett drew harsh criticism from many Republicans on the US House floor, she received a standing ovation from most Democrats. Negative comments were prevalent in a YouTube video of her speech, with one user stating, “She loves the tiny amount of power she has. Always trying to make a scene.”
The issue of representation for the territories has become predicated on partisan politics, which inhibits productive and meaningful conversation about it. Instead of learning about the history of the Insular Cases, many choose to align with the belief systems behind the R or D on their ballots.
Stacey Plaskett is not ignorant. She knew precisely why the delegates of the territories could not vote for legislation and the approval of elected officials in Congress. Yet her speech, in which her microphone was cut off, effectively highlighted how the US territories have been kept in the dark since their birth. 3.6 million people across five major territories have been and are still dismissed as an uncivilized race in a bigoted judicial decision that has yet to be reversed. A decision that has actively oppressed the citizens of the insular areas for more than a century. A decision that the Supreme Court has failed to reconsider as recently as 2022.
The people of Guam, American Samoa, The Northern Mariana Islands, The US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico are at a generational disadvantage, with a federal governmental structure that has not responded to or respected their exigencies.
While Delegate Plaskett stood at the congressional lectern, fighting a muted microphone, and called on her colleagues by saying, “We must do something,” the voices of 3.6 million people shouted with her.
0 Comments