New York State Bar Association Launches Task Force to Examine Historically Unequal Treatment of the Citizens of U.S. Territories
- Staff Consortium
- July 15, 2022
A New York State Bar Association task force will review the laws and court decisions that have led to second-class citizenship and unequal treatment for American citizens who live in the U.S. territories and make recommendations to create equality, according to a release from the NYS Bar Association, shared by Equally American, which advocates for equality and civil rights in U.S. territories. The federal government’s relations with the territories it won in the Spanish-American War is dictated by a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions from 1901 known as the Insular Cases, Equally American said. In those cases, the court refused to extend to the territories the rights afforded to all Americans, allowing Congress to decide which rights apply. “We cannot stand by as millions are denied the same rights as the rest of us even though they have the same standing as citizens,” Levin Wallach said. “Without representation in Congress and a right to vote, citizens of the U.S. territories hav...
