The Insular Cases: A Comparative Historical Study of

Puerto Rico, Hawai‘i, and the Philippines

By Hon. Gustavo A. Gelpí
In 1898, the United States became an overseas empire. of the East, with breath of pestilence and touch of leprosy.
With the signing of the Treaty of Paris ending the Spanish- Do not let them become part of us with their idolatry, poly-
American War, the former Spanish territories of Guam and gamous creeds and harem habits.” And Sen. Albert Bever-
the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean and Puerto Rico in the idge of Indiana sounded just like the leader of the future
Atlantic Ocean came under the American flag. Simultaneous- Third Reich: “God has not been preparing the English-
ly, the Republic of Hawai‘i, by way of treaty, relinquished speaking and Teutonic peoples for a thousand years for
its sovereignty in exchange for territorial status by virtue of nothing but vain and idle self-contemplation and self-
what is commonly known as the Newlands Resolution.1 admiration. No! He has made us the master organizers of
For more than 100 years, the Northwest Ordinance of the world to establish a system where chaos reigns. He
1789 provided the path that newly acquired U.S. territories has made us adept in government that we may administer
followed: Congress would initially appoint a governor and government among the savage and servile peoples.”3
judges for the territory and also establish civil rights therein. On Sept. 12, 1901, President William McKinley died after
When the territorial population exceeded 5,000 adult males, being shot days earlier at the Pan-American Trade Exposi-
voters would elect a legislature and send a nonvoting delegate tion in Buffalo, N.Y. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt,
to Congress. Finally, when the territory or division thereof former Rough Rider and hero of the Battle of San Juan Hill
reached a population of 60,000, the territory would petition in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, succeeded him
for statehood and eventually be admitted to the Union. in office. Roosevelt also considered the inhabitants of the
The arrival of the 20th century witnessed the awaken- new American possessions inferior beings: “Besides acting in
ing of rampant racist and imperialist sentiment toward the good faith, we have acted with good sense, and that is also
inhabitants of the newly acquired island possessions. The important. We have not been frightened or misled into giving
American expansionist paradigm, in turn, would no longer to the people of [Puerto Rico] a form of government unsuit-
be followed. Members of the U.S. Congress and even the able to them. While providing that the people should govern
President himself openly expressed their feelings of Ameri- themselves as far as possible we have not hesitated in their
can superiority over territorial inhabitants. Rep. Thomas own interests to keep the power of shaping their destiny.”
Spight of Mississippi, for example, commented that the At the conclusion of his presidency, he also spoke about the
Filipinos, who “[are] Asiatics, Malays, negroes and of mixed Filipinos in a derogatory manner: “In our treatment of the
blood have nothing in common with us and centuries can- Filipinos we have acted up to the highest standard that has
not assimilate them. … They can never be clothed with the yet been set at marking the proper way in which a powerful
rights of American citizenship nor their territory be admit- and advanced nation should treat a weaker people.”4
ted as a State of the American Union.” His colleague, Rep. The highest court of the land, whose justices had
Champ Clark of Missouri, spoke of Hawai‘ians in a similar decided Plessy v. Ferguson only years earlier (in 1896),
demeaning tone: “How can we endure our shame, when added insult to injury. In a series of cases decided from
a Chinese Senator from Hawai‘i, with his pig-tail hanging 1901 to 1905—known as the “Insular Cases”—the U.S.
down his back, with his pagan joss in his hand, shall rise Supreme Court constitutionally justified imperialist policy
from his curule chair and in pidgin English proceed to chop toward the territories of Hawai‘i, Puerto Rico, and the Phil-
logic with George Frisbie Hoar or Henry Cabot Lodge.”2 ippines.5 From this point on, as a matter of “constitutional”
Matters fared no better in the U.S. Senate, as Sen. William precedent rather than congressional policy, the Northwest
Bate of Tennessee remarked: “[B]eware of these mongrels Ordinance was de facto repealed. In its place, the Court

22 | The Federal Lawyer | March/April 2011

devised the doctrine of “territorial incorporation,” accord- contrariwise held that this identical congressional act did
ing to which two types of territories exist: incorporated not “incorporate” Puerto Rico. Justifying such illogical rul-
territory, in which the Constitution fully applies and which ing, the Court, in a 9-0 opinion penned by Justice William
is destined for statehood, and unincorporated territory, in Howard Taft (and 81-year-old Oliver Wendell Holmes, con-
which only “fundamental” constitutional guarantees apply curring in the opinion), described the Filipinos and Puerto
and which is not bound for statehood. Ricans as “living in compact and ancient communities,
President Roosevelt clearly favored the Court’s imperialist with definitely formed customs and political conceptions.”
groundwork. The initial Insular Cases, however, were decid- Justice Taft also concluded that “[Puerto Rico is a] distant
ed by a 5-4 plurality. When Justice Horace Gray retired, it ocean communit[y] of a different origin and language from
became paramount for Roosevelt to fill the vacancy with a those of our continental people.”8 Taft was an offspring of
candidate who would uphold the Court’s precedent. Oliver American imperialist policy: a former U.S. President from
Wendell Holmes was his man. Letters to and from Roosevelt 1909 to 1913, secretary of war from 1904 to 1908, and
to the U.S. senator from Massachusetts, Henry Cabot Lodge, governor of the Philippines from 1901 to 1904. During his
are evidence of Holmes’ commitment to the Insular Cases gubernatorial term, a major insurrection against American
policy as a condition of his appointment. Holmes joined dominance broke out in the Philippines, and thousands of
the Court in 1902 and thereafter voted consistently with the American soldiers lost their lives or were injured—hence,
majority in support of the doctrine.6 Taft’s distaste for the territorial populations.
The ratio decidendi for the novel judicial territorial policy Congressional treatment of U.S. territories sharply var-
of the Insular Cases was laid forth in the Court’s 1901 deci- ied following the Insular Cases decisions. In the Philip-
sion in Downes v. Bidwell: “It is obvious that in the annexa- pines, unlike in Hawai‘i and Puerto Rico, Congress never
tion of outlying and distant possessions grave questions will established a U.S. territorial court. Congress also did not
arise from the differences of race, habits, laws and customs confer U.S. citizenship to Filipinos and passed organic acts
of the people, and from the differences of soil, climate and in 1916 and 1935, which would culminate in the indepen-
production, which may require action on the part of Con- dence of the Philippines in 1946.
gress that would be quite unnecessary in the annexation of Hawai‘i remained an incorporated U.S. territory from
contiguous territory inhabited only by people of the same 1900 until its admission as a state in 1959. Throughout
race or by scattered bodies of native Indians.” this period Hawaiians were U.S. citizens and the state had
By virtue of this judicial constitutional fiat, the U.S. ter- a U.S. territorial court. The Hawaiian Constitution was
ritories and their inhabitants have now for over a century approved by Congress at the time the state was admitted to
been treated in an anomalously separate and unequal man- the union. Upon statehood, an Article III U.S. district court
ner. For example, in 1901, the Court held that the Uniformi- was established. Interestingly, Palmyra Atoll, an uninhab-
ty Clause of the Constitution, which provides that “all duties, ited part of the former territory of Hawai‘i was segregated
imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United by Congress and not made part of the new state. Palmyra
States” did not apply to unincorporated territories. After that, Atoll today retains its incorporated status.
in 1903 and 1922, the Court held that citizens of the unin- The case of Puerto Rico, however, is quite more complex
corporated territories of Hawai‘i and Puerto Rico were not and perplexing, to say the least. In 1952, seven years before
entitled to indictment by grand jury nor trial by jury, as these the approval of Hawai‘i’s Constitution and admission as a
were not fundamental rights. Following in these footsteps, state, Congress approved Puerto Rico’s Constitution, which
in 1924, the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, whose members provided for a republican form of government, thus estab-
themselves were presidential appointees at that time, went lishing the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Notwithstanding,
so far as to hold that the Nineteenth Amendment, which coetaneous with this act, Congress did not admit Puerto Rico
grants suffrage rights to women, was not a fundamental into the union as it would do when it approved Hawai‘i’s
right. Hence, women in Puerto Rico were not entitled to Constitution. Rather, as House Majority Leader John McCor-
vote at the time. In 1978 and 1980, the Insular Cases were mack would put it, Puerto Rico became “a new experiment;
again relied upon by the Supreme Court when it dismissed it is turning away from the territorial status; it is something
constitutional challenges against significant discrimination in intermediary between the territorial status and statehood.” A
Social Security and federal welfare programs to U.S. citizens decade and a half later, in 1966, Congress transformed the
residing in Puerto Rico.7 U.S. territorial court in Puerto Rico into an Article III U.S. Dis-
The Supreme Court’s interpretation of its own concocted trict Court “because the Federal District Court in Puerto Rico
doctrine has been fraught with irreconcilable inconsisten- ‘is in its jurisdiction, powers and responsibilities the same as
cies. In the early Insular Cases, the Court held that Hawai‘i, the U.S. District Courts in the (several) states.’”9 To date, this
Puerto Rico, and the Philippines were unincorporated court, where the author of this article sits, is the only Article
territories when they were acquired in 1898. However, in III court to be created by Congress for any of the overseas
Hawai‘i v. Mankichi, the Court concluded that, by virtue territories acquired by the United States since 1898, including
of the Hawai‘i Organic Act of 1990, which conferred U.S. Guam, American Samoa (acquired in 1899), the U.S. Virgin
citizenship to native Hawaiians, the territory became incor- Islands (acquired in 1917), and the Commonwealth of the
porated. The inhabitants of Puerto Rico, by virtue of their Northern Marianas (which became a territory in 1976). Ironi-
1917 Organic Act, likewise became U.S. citizens. However, cally, in Hawai‘i, as in all other 49 states of the union, no
in Balzac v. Porto Rico decided in 1922, the Supreme Court Article III court was established until actual statehood.

March/April 2011 | The Federal Lawyer | 23

 Despite Puerto Rico’s achievement of commonwealth sta- Even more significant is the fact that, since the annexation
tus in 1952, even today the constitutionally denigrating ripple of Puerto Rico by the United States, the territory’s American
effects of the Insular Cases doctrine continue to foster a citizens have formed an integral part of the nation’s Armed
separate and unequal treatment to U.S. citizens therein. Since Forces—not only in times of conflict but also in times of
1900, in the U.S. District Court, criminal defendants have peace. Historically, Puerto Rico has been one of the jurisdic-
enjoyed the fundamental right to trial by jury, as guaranteed tions with the largest per capita enlistment in the U.S. Armed
by the Sixth Amendment. In 1922, however, this federal Forces. A notable percentage of service members from the
constitutional guarantee, as mentioned earlier, was held by island have served with pride and honor and paid the ulti-
the Supreme Court to be inapplicable to local prosecutions.10 mate price in the service and defense of the nation.
It was not until the enactment of Puerto Rico’s Constitution In light of the preceding discussion, it is unfathomable
in 1952 that criminal defendants were, in fact, guaranteed to understand how, in 2011, U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico (as
any kind of constitutional right to a jury trial in the island’s well as in the territories) still cannot vote for their President
courts, instead of the statutory right that existed since 1901. and Vice President or elect their voting representatives in
Similarly, in the U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico, civil either house of Congress. (The author himself, while a
litigants have since 1900 enjoyed the fundamental right to stateside resident, voted in several presidential and congres-
trial by jury, as guaranteed by the Seventh Amendment. sional elections, only to involuntarily “relinquish” his right
Civil litigants in Puerto Rico’s local court system today, on to vote by moving to Puerto Rico). This undemocratic pre-
the other hand, are not afforded the same right by way dicament within a federalist government is but the historical
of locally applicable constitutional or statutory mandate, outcome of the Insular Cases—a doctrine of pure judicial
as they are in the states and other U.S. territories. Instead, invention, with absolutely no basis in the Constitution and
because of the traditions of Spanish civil law, civil cases one that is contrary to all judicial precedent and territorial
are tried before the bench. However, this is not the case practice. To date, the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the First,
in Louisiana, which also has a similar legal heritage, but Third, and Ninth Circuits, where all the U.S. territories lie,
affords civil litigants the right to a jury trial.11 as well as the Second Circuit have rejected constitutional
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, sitting by designation in claims made by U.S. citizens living in territories who seek
the Third Circuit, recently commented that— to vote for the very federal officials who enact and execute
the very laws that shape these citizens’ daily lives. The U.S.
It is thus not surprising that, although Puerto Rico is Supreme Court has denied further review.13
not a state in the Federal Union, it … seem[s] to have Over the years, various Supreme Court justices, as well
become a state within a common and accepted mean- as appellate and district judges, have voiced concerns
ing of the word. … It possesses a measure of autonomy about the continued validity of the Insular Cases doctrine.
comparable to that possessed by the States. Like the As early as 1901, Justice Harlan (a dissenter in the Plessy
States it has a republican form of government, orga- decision) staunchly asserted the following in his dissent in
nized pursuant to a constitution adopted by its people, Downes v. Bidwell:
and a bill of rights. … Like the States, Puerto Rico
lacks the full sovereignty of an independent nation. Congress … , by action taken outside the Constitution,
… As with citizens of States, Puerto Rican citizens are engraft[s] upon our republican institutions a colonial
accorded United States citizenship and the fundamental system such as exists under monarchical governments.
protections of the United States Constitution.12 Surely such a result was never contemplated by the
fathers of the Constitution. … The idea that this coun-
Today, the internal government of Puerto Rico estab- try may acquire territories anywhere upon the earth,
lished by its congressionally approved Constitution mirrors by conquest or treaty, and hold them as mere colonies
that of any state. The government of the commonwealth is or provinces, the people inhabiting them to enjoy
divided into three co-equal branches. It has a governor, a only such rights as Congress chooses to accord to
bicameral legislature, and a Supreme Court. As in any state, them is wholly inconsistent with the spirit and genius
the judgments of its court of last resort may be reviewed by as well as the words of the Constitution.
the U.S. Supreme Court. As mentioned earlier, an Article III
federal court sits on the island, and Puerto Rico is part of In 1974, Justice Brennan, in a concurring opinion joined
the First Circuit. All federal laws that are criminal and civil by three fellow justices, came to a similar conclusion:
in nature apply to Puerto Rico, as they apply to the states,
with very few limited exceptions. All federal executive Whatever the validity of [the Insular Cases], in the
branch agencies have a significant presence on the island, particular historical context in which they were
which lies within U.S. customs and immigration territory. decided, those cases are clearly not the authority for
The island’s economic, commercial, and banking systems granting the application of … any … provision of the
are integrated with those of the United States. Residents of Bill of Rights to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in
Puerto Rico pay full federal payroll taxes to finance Social the 1970s. … The concept that the Bill of Rights and
Security and Medicare, just as stateside residents do. Puerto other Constitutional protections against arbitrary gov-
Ricans also pay federal import and export taxes, and, when ernment are inoperative when they become incon-
required by law, they file federal income tax returns. venient or when expediency dictates otherwise is a

24 | The Federal Lawyer | March/April 2011

 very dangerous doctrine and if allowed to flourish while Puerto Rico did not. As ties with the Philippines were
would destroy the benefit of a written Constitution gradually severed, ties with Puerto Rico were strengthened.
and undermine the basis of our government.14 Hawai‘i became a state but Puerto Rico has not. Puerto Rico
possesses all the attributes of a state, including a federal
In 2008, following nearly three decades of judicial Article III court. However, U.S. citizenship therein is con-
hibernation, the Insular Cases doctrine again became the stitutionally deficient, because residents of the island lack a
source of national controversy before the Supreme Court vote in Congress and are ineligible to elect the President.
in the case of Boumediene v. Bush. The case involved Clearly, Puerto Rico cannot be compared today to
aliens detained as enemy combatants at the United States Guantanamo Bay. And finally, Puerto Rico is not like the
Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. These individuals incorporated, yet uninhabited, territory of Palmyra Atoll.
petitioned for writs of habeas corpus. Guantanamo Bay is Under the Insular Cases’ patently absurd rationale, Palmyra
not formally part of the United States but has been leased Atoll is necessarily destined for statehood and visitors to the
from Cuba since 1903, the latter nation retaining ultimate area, while there, necessarily enjoy full constitutional rights.
sovereignty over the territory and the United States retaining Hon. Juan R. Torruella, a scholar on the subject, as well
control of jurisdiction. The Supreme Court decided that the as a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
right to habeas corpus was a fundamental right applying to has correctly termed the Insular Cases “the Doctrine of
an unincorporated territory such as Guantanamo Bay.15 Separate and Unequal.” In a very recent dissent from an
Of profound importance to Puerto Rico are several pro- opinion denying U.S. citizens the right to elect members to
nouncements in Boumediene regarding the Insular Cases the House of Representatives, Judge Torruella vociferously
and how these might now apply to the commonwealth. stated the following:
First, the Court recognized that the Insular Cases involved
territories “with wholly dissimilar traditions and institu- This is a most unfortunate and denigrating predicament
tions” that Congress intended to govern only “temporar- for citizens who for more than one hundred years have
ily.” Second, quoting Justice Brennan, the Court held that been branded with a stigma of inferiority, and all that
“it may well be that over time the ties between the United follows therefrom. At the root of this problem is the
States and any of its unincorporated territories strengthen unacceptable role of the courts. As in the case of racial
in ways that are of constitutional significance.” Finally, the segregation, it is the courts that are responsible for
Court held that “[t]he Constitution grants Congress and the the creation of this inequality. … Changed conditions
President the power to acquire, dispose of and govern ter- have long undermined the foundations of these judge-
ritory, not the power to decide when and where its terms made rules, which were established in a by-gone era
apply. … Abstaining from questions involving forward in consonance with the distorted views of that epoch.
sovereignty and territorial governance is one thing. To Although the unequal treatment of persons because
hold that the political branches have the power to switch of the color of their skin or other irrelevant reasons
the Constitution on or off at will is quite another.” was then the modus operandi of governments, and an
In light of the ruling in Boumediene, in the future the accepted practice of societies in general, the continued
Supreme Court will be called upon to re-examine the Insu- enforcement of these rules by the courts is today an
lar Cases doctrine as applied to Puerto Rico and other U.S. outdated anachronism, to say the least.16
territories. In doing so, several questions may arise that
will need to be answered. The time has very much belatedly come for the U.S.
Supreme Court to revisit and remedy the anachronistic and
• In the U.S. territories, are there still “grave questions denigrating judicial predicament that today nearly five mil-
[that] will arise from differences of race, habits, laws lion United States citizens residing in Puerto Rico and other
and customs of the people,” as the Supreme Court U.S. territories have sustained for more than 110 years. TFL
observed in Downes v. Bidwell in 1901?
• More so, given that more than 50 years have passed The author is a U.S. district judge for the
since the Court decided Brown v. Board of Educa- District of Puerto Rico as well as a former
tion, can such insidious racial and ethnic discrimina- FBA chapter president, circuit vice presi-
tion be constitutionally justified today? dent, and member of the Board of Direc-
• How long may Congress “temporarily” hold a terri- tors. He is also an adjunct professor of law
tory when the territory has evolved into a model of a at the University of Puerto Rico and the
federated state without having been formally admitted Interamerican University. The topic of this
to the union? What is the effect, if any, of the consti- article was originally the subject of a pre-
tutional strengthening of ties between the territory and sentation given by the author on Dec. 10,
the United States over the past 110-plus years? 2010, in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, during the
Hawai‘i Chapter’s Second Annual FBA
Where does the future of Puerto Rico lie within the Unit- Conference.
ed States Constitution? No U.S. jurisdiction has ever been
maintained in territorial status as long as Puerto Rico and
Guam have. The Philippines became an independent nation insular cases continued on page 74

March/April 2011 | The Federal Lawyer | 25

reviews continued from page 73

ing partners and businesses throughout areas that surround and encompass and other materials and exports clothes
the world, and doing so will be neces- cities produce most of the world’s and automobile parts; the United States
sary for it to continue to progress as an wealth. Not only established cities such imports oil and exports computer soft-
advanced society. Starobin notes that as New York, London, Paris, Moscow, ware and agricultural products. These
China has forged strong relationships Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo, transactions require international co-
not only with Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela but emerging cities such as Tel Aviv, operation and regulation.
for obtaining oil, but with democrat- Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bangalore, and Starobin looks forward to the United
ic Chile, which owns 38 percent of Santiago could become economically States becoming a less dominant and
the world’s copper production. China’s and culturally more important than the less militaristic power, with a more
economy has expanded at a rate of countries of which they are a part. peace-loving and culturally advanced
close to 10 percent annually for the past Starobin calls his fifth “after America” population; he somehow sees California
30 years—a faster rate than that of the possibility universal civilization. As as a model to emulate. After America
United States in its heyday, and certainly America evolved from individual states is a wide-ranging, fast-paced narrative,
faster than our current (2009) rate of to a centralized nation and European with material garnered from extensive
about 3 percent, Japan’s of 2.2 percent, countries joined together to form the conversations with high-level officials
or Germany’s of 2.7 percent. Starobin European Union, so could the world and experts as well as with ordinary citi-
envisions China’s combination of eco- join together to create a single govern- zens throughout the world. It contains
nomic expansion, military strength, and ing entity. Many nations are already both statistical and analytical research,
diplomatic aggressiveness as the path to moving in this direction in their trade as well as more than a little speculation.
its future global dominance. negotiations, defense alliances such as The reader need not agree with all of
Starobin labels a fourth possible the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, its premises or conclusions to find the
outcome of American decline as “City- and the World Court. Moreover, book of considerable value. TFL
States”—a modern version of those in advanced technology, convenient trav-
ancient and medieval times. Under this el, and instant communications have John C. Holmes served as a U.S. admin-
scenario, the importance of the nation- produced worldwide interacting econo- istrative law judge for 30 years, retir-
state would diminish as populations mies. Toyota has become a successful ing in 2004 as chief administrative law
feel more connected to the cultural “American” company, while General judge at the U.S. Department of the In-
developments of their more immedi- Motors and Burger King are successful terior. He currently works part time as a
ate regions. Although this notion may in Japan and other countries throughout legal and judicial consultant and can
seem unlikely, Starobin notes that 40 the world. China imports coal, iron ore, be reached at [email protected].

insular cases continued from page 25

Endnotes Califano v. Torres, 435 U.S. 1 (1978); Harris v. Rosario, 446
1
See Treaty of Peace, Dec. 10, 1898, U.S. Spain, 30 Stat. U. S. 651 (1980).
1754; Joint Resolution to Provide for Annexing the Hawaiian 8
Balzac v. Porto Rico, 258 U.S. 298 (1922).
Islands to the United States, Res. No. 55, 55th Cong., 30 Stat. 9
98 Cong. Rec. 1528 (1952); Examining Bd. of Engineers,
750 (1899). Architects and Surveyors v. Flores de Otero, 426 U.S. 572, 595
2
33 Cong. Rec. 2105 (1900); Cong. Rec. 6019 (June 14, 1898). n.26; 1966 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2786–90.
3
33 Cong Rec. 3616 (1900); 56th Cong., 1st Sess. pp 704–-712 10
Balzac v Porto Rico, supra, note 8.
(Jan. 9, 1900). 11
E.g., LSA-C.C.P. Article 1731–1841; Pub. L. No. 42, 3d
4
Theodore Roosevelt, Address at the Hartford Coliseum, Guam Legis., 1st Sess. §§ 3 and 4 (1955); U.S. Virgin Islands
Connecticut (August 22, 1902); Theodore Roosevelt, Speech Rev. Organic Act of 1954 § 3, 48 U.S.C. § 1561.
at Methodist Episcopal Church Celebration of the African Dia- 12
United States v. Laboy-Torres, 553 F.3d 715, 721 (3rd Cir.
mond Jubilee, Washington, D.C. (Jan. 18, 1909). 2009).
5
E.g., Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244 (1901); Hawai‘i v. 13
E.g., Igartua De la Rosa v. United States, 417 F. 3d 145 (1st
Mankichi, 190 U.S. 197 (1903); Dorr v. United States, 195 U.S. Cir. 2005) (en banc), cert. denied, 547 U.S. 1035 (2006); Bal-
138 (1904). lentine v. United States, 486 F.3d 806 (3rd Cir. 2007); Attorney
6
G. Edward White, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: Law and General of Territory of Guam v. United States, 738 F.2d 1017
the Inner Self, 298–301 (Oxford Univ. Press 1993); Liva Baker, (9th Cir. 1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1209 (1985); Romeu v.
Justice from Beacon Hill, 346–49 (Harper Collins 1991); Shel- Cohen, 265 F.3d 118 (2d Cir. 2001).
don M. Novick, Honorable Justice: The Life of Oliver Wendell 14
Torres v. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 442 U.S. 465,
Holmes, 234–37 (Little, Brown & Co. 1989). 475–76 (1979).
7
Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244, 282 (1901); Hawai´i v. 15
Boumediene v. Bush, 553 U.S. 723 (2008).
Mankichi, 190 U.S. 197 (1903); Balzac v. Porto Rico, 258 U.S. 16
Igartua v. United States, 626 F. 3d 592, 612–38 (1st Cir. 2010).
298 (1922); Morales v. Bd. of Registration, 33 P.R.R. 76 (1924);

74 | The Federal Lawyer | March/April 2011