Insular Cases

Insular Cases. In twenty‐four cases decided between 1901 and 1922, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Constitution does not apply automatically to territories acquired by the nation. Badly divided initially, the Court later unanimously held that the Constitution applied only after Congress had “incorporated” a territory into the United States.

Following the Spanish‐American War, the United States acquired the islands of Puerto Rico and the Philippines (thus the name “Insular” cases). Almost immediately, a dispute arose over whether the national government could tax goods imported from its newly acquired territory. The dispute involved two sources. First, the Constitution required that duties be uniform throughout “the United States”; second, tariff laws imposed tariffs on goods imported from “foreign” countries. If the island territories were part of the United States, goods imported from them could not be taxed. From that mundane problem emerged constitutional issues of great significance, in particular whether the Bill of Rights applied to the newly acquired territories. Behind the language lay issues of race and cultural hegemony: Were people in the territories “fit” for constitutional protections? Should the United States impose its constitutional values on other cultures?

In the most important of the early cases, Downes v. Bidwell (1901), the Court failed to agree on a rationale for its conclusion that a duty could be imposed on goods imported from Puerto Rico because it was not part of “the United States.” In announcing the Court's conclusion, Justice Henry Billings Brown explained that a territory could not become a “state” until Congress said it was. Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller dissented, reasoning that the Constitution applied to every action taken by Congress. Between those two positions fell the concurring opinion of Justice Edward D. White, who proposed that the Constitution applied only to territories that had been “incorporated” into the United States and that incorporation could come only from an act of Congress. The entire Court eventually adopted White's interpretation, first in a majority opinion, Dorr v. United States (1904), and later in a unanimous decision, Balzac v. Puerto Rico (1922).

The Insular case decisions placed the Supreme Court's imprimatur on overseas expansion, allowing the president and Congress great flexibility in international affairs. Never having been overruled, the doctrine of the Insular cases has continuing vitality, especially in the efforts to enforce U.S. laws outside its borders and in the U.S. involvement in international organizations.
See also Expansionism.

Bibliography

James E. Kerr , The Insular Cases: The Role of the Judiciary in American Expansionism, 1982.

Walter F. Pratt Jr.