The undemocratic colonial framework governing people in U.S. territories today was established by all three branches of the federal government following the Spanish-American War and continues in full force until today. It is grounded in the idea that the United States has the power to unilaterally govern the people of island territories without their say and without their consent. Justice Neil Gorsuch has labeled this relationship “American colonialism.” The legal foundation of this framework is the Insular Cases, a series of controversial Supreme Court decisions Justice Sonia Sotomayor has called “odious and wrong,” and Justice Gorsuch has declared “deserve no place in our law” because they “have no foundation in the Constitution and rest instead on racial stereotypes.” This colonial framework is also characterized by the legal doctrine of “plenary power,” where the Supreme Court has described the power of Congress over people in the Territories as “absolute and undisputed.” Justice Gorsuch, joined by Justice Clarence, recently questioned this doctrine, explaining that  “[the Territories] Clause, rightly understood,” does not “endow the federal government with plenary power even within the Territories themselves.” 

Based on these legal doctrines, the federal government claims sweeping power to govern every aspect of life in the Territories, including the power to ignore the will of the people in the Territories and their calls for democracy, equity, and self-determination. Right to Democracy believes it is important to challenge both the Insular Cases and the Plenary Power Doctrine to confront and dismantle the undemocratic colonial framework governing people in the Territories.